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{mosimage} For the past three weekends, West Johnston Marching Band has been competingin various competitions nationally and locally and bringing their trophies back home to Johnston County.
Starting the weekend of October 19th, the band traveled to Towson Maryland to compete in the Bands of America regional competition. Twenty-five bands from Utah, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New Jersey and North Carolina competed. West Johnston is now the first school in the history of Johnston County to achieve first place in a Class AAA in a Bands of America Regional preliminary competition two years in a row. Each student was awarded a medal for his or her award winning performance. The day after the BOA competition, the band stopped in Washington, D.C. to visit the National Air and Space Museum, the Lincoln Monument and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial known as "The Wall".
On October 27th, the band competed at Sanderson High school for the Capital City Band Expo. Competing on a muddy field brought on by the first rain in over a month; West was named Grand Champion and captured the Capital Cup Trophy. "The competition was really tough, it made me proud to win" one student said. "Doing your best in the mud isn't easy!"
West Johnston marched into Cary this past weekend for the annual Cary Band Day Parade and Competition. They won Grand Champion in the class 5-A field show competition and best parade band, proudly bringing home the Grand Champion Sweepstakes Trophy. "It is amazing how far these kids have come in the last two weeks", said Lance Britt, director of Bands at West Johnston. "Their show continues to improve and grow every day due to their hard work and dedication. Last night's performance was truly their strongest of the season."
The next opportunity to view the students perform their award winning 2007 show "The Martian Chronicles" will be the Indy Preview Show, to be held at the West Johnston football stadium on Monday, November 12th at 7:00 pm. At this event, which is free to everyone, the band will perform their entire show before they head to the annual Bands of America Grand Nationals Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana. Last year at the BOA Grand Nationals, West Johnston was the only marching band from North Carolina to make the semi-finals and placed 17th out of 100 of the top high school marching bands in the country.