In the first contest of the 2021-2022 season, both Arkadelphia and Gurdon bands fared well.
The PowerBand Classic Invitational was held Saturday, Oct. 9, at Lake Hamilton. After a full day of performances, the Arkadelphia High School Band raked in several awards and came in first place in many categories. The Gurdon Go-Devil Marching Band performed well, also.
The results are as follows:
Division 1 Ratings:
Auxiliary: Horatio, Prescott, Gurdon, NLR, Greenwood, Malvern, Conway, Pottsville, Arkadelphia, GCT, Lakeside, Cabot, Paragould, Bryant
Percussion: Heber, Greenwood, Conway, Arkadelphia, GCT, Lakeside, Cabot, Paragould, Bryant
Division 2 Band: Horatio, Gurdon
Division 1 Band: Greenwood, Conway, Pottsville, Arkadelphia, GCT, Lakeside, Cabot, Paragould, Bryant
2A
1. Gurdon
3A
1. Horatio
2. Prescott
4A
1. Arkadelphia
2. Pottsville
3. Malvern
5A
1. Paragould
2. GCT
3. Lakeside
6A
1. Greenwood
7A
1. Bryant
2. Cabot
3. Conway
Outstanding Music Performance in each Class
2A
1. Gurdon
3A
1. Prescott
4A
1. Arkadelphia
5A
1. Paragould
6A
1. Greenwood
7A
1. Bryant
Outstanding Visual Performance in each Class
2A
1. Gurdon
3A
1. Prescott
4A
1. Arkadelphia
5A
1. Paragould
6A
1. Greenwood
7A
1. Cabot
Outstanding General Effect in each Class
2A
1. Gurdon
3A
1. Horatio
4A
1. Arkadelphia
5A
1. Paragould
6A
1. Greenwood
7A
1. Bryant
Outstanding Auxiliary in each Class
2A
1. Gurdon
3A
1. Horatio
4A
1. Arkadelphia
5A
1. Lakeside
6A
1. Greenwood
7A
1. Cabot
Outstanding Percussion in each Class
2A
1. Gurdon
3A
1. Horatio
4A
1. Arkadelphia
5A
1. Paragould
6A
1. Greenwood
7A
1. Cabot
After preliminaries and awards, the top 10 bands competed.
Top 10 Final Results:
1. Paragould
2. Bryant
3. Cabot
4. Arkadelphia
5. Green County Tech
6 Greenwood
7 Lakeside
8 Conway
9. Pottsville
10. Gurdon
Aaron Seel, AHS Band director, said he was pleased with Saturday’s results but admitted the Band still has some work to do. “I thought the Preliminary was a little flat,” Seel told The Arkadelphian. But, given that 44 of the Band students had never competed in a contest before, Seel applauded their performance. “I was pleased,” he said. “I’ve got a philosophy that you can always make it better. You can always get a little more out of it.”
Saturday’s contest will direct the marching bands on what changes and designs could be implemented to better enhance their show. The bands will head to the state marching contest — the Championship of the Rock — on Nov. 1 at War Memorial Stadium. The AHS Band has won that contest in its division consecutively for the past five years, and Seel said he hopes that trend will continue.
“Next week I suspect will also go well for us,” Seel said, “and I think we will make finals and hopefully have a good showing and score pretty high in finals.” Last time the Badgers competed in that contest it placed third, yielding the top awards to Division 6A and 7A schools.
