Cary Marching Bands Make Their Mark

Story by Nancy Caggia and photos by Kevin LaWall. Above, Green Hope Band Director Brian Meyers leading band onto the field at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Cary, NC- Several area high school marching bands traveled to Indianapolis over the long weekend to compete in what has become an annual rite of passage. Cary High School advanced this weekend to the finals.

Bands of America Championship

The marching bands of Green Hope and Cary High schools competed at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL Colts, on Friday 11/11/11 in the Bands of America Grand National Championships. Bands of America is recognized as the premier marching band event in the nation. More than 90 bands from across America participate, including some of the finest, most progressive bands in the activity today.

The 2011 field competition featured 92 bands in preliminary competition.  Green Hope and Cary High competed at 9:15 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively.

Cary High Advances to Saturday Morning

From the field of 92, thirty-six advance to play again on Saturday morning. Cary High was among them.

From these thirty-six, only twelve advance to play AGAIN on Saturday evening in the finals. None of our area high schools made it to this stage. Stiff competition from  Midwestern bands Broken Arrow High School in Oklahoma and Avon High School from Indianapolis placed these two 1st and 2nd.

Final results are posted on the Grand Nationals website

11 replies
  1. bambam
    bambam says:

    Ms. President of the Cary Band Boosters. Perhaps you should be a little more proactive in pursuing promotional activities. You shouldn’t expect news organizations to always come to you. Having static information on your website is not the best way to promote the band. You must take the initiative and seek out publicity.

  2. Jo-Ann Chandler
    Jo-Ann Chandler says:

    I too was surprised there weren’t any articles in our local papers regarding the Cary High School Band and their tremendous accomplishment at this years BOA Grand Nationals. I even contacted the N&O regarding this matter and they said “if we’re not told, we can’t write about it”. If you notice, the Green Hope articles were placed by Green Hope’s publicist. It’s up to Cary High representatives to make sure our local newspapers have the information they need, not just a website for them to access. We should be supplying the information directly to the media. Maybe this is something that can be discussed in future band meetings and elect a representative to be responsible for media coverage because right now it’s not getting done.

  3. Bev Shipley-Sherron
    Bev Shipley-Sherron says:

    The Cary High School marching band was thrilled to be one of 3 marching bands representing NC at the Bands of America Grand National competion in Indianapolis November 10-12. The Cary bands were Cary High School and Green Hope. Johnston County’s West Johnston band was there too. We are so appreciative of Green Hope sharing their media moment with us as CHS celebrates a historical first – placing as a semi finalist in Grand National competition. This was a singular moment of good sportsmanship and pride that a Cary school music program did well. Thanks, Green Hope boosters, for all your help.

  4. Hal Goodtree
    Hal Goodtree says:

    Margaret,

    Thanks for your comment. You’re welcome to call me anytime. I’d be happy to tell you how to get your info to us on a regular basis.

    In the past, we have published more than 40 stories about CHS, but it’s been like pulling teeth to get information. If you can correct that problem, you will help satisfy a long standing desire on the part of CaryCitizen management for more CHS stories.

    Thanks again for your comment.

  5. Hal Goodtree
    Hal Goodtree says:

    The answer is simple: anytime a member of the CHS community would like to send us pictures or a story, we’d be happy to give it a look. We’ve been asking (neigh, begging) for participation from CHS parents for 2 years.

    Can you help us, Ann???

    • Margaret
      Margaret says:

      CaryCitizen, as president of the Cary Band Boosters for the past three years I have never recieved any request. We are always more than thrilled to share what our students are doing and as Ann shared with you we have a very robust public photo gallary right off the Cary Band website (www.caryband.org). It also contains contact information for our entire board. I would love for you to utilize some of our pictures from this weekend. We are extremely proud of our students and their accomplishments this year.

    • Kathy Evans
      Kathy Evans says:

      Hal-
      I have been “photo-following” the Cary High Band all season. I have just returned home from a fabulous trip with some kids that have worked their butts off this season. I will soon be editing and posting my photos to the Cary Band website that I included above. Please feel free to use any of the photos for the Cary Citizen that have my name posted on them. I am not a professional photographer (only a great Cary Band enthusiast and mother of the drum major this year) so some are not as great as the professionals have taken in years past. But, I feel there are many that will amply fill your need. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can answer any questions for you.

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