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Sweet sounds of success

Washington band brings home its first-ever state title

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To call it close is an understatement.

But the fact is the Washington High School Marching Band brought home the school’s first-ever instrumental music state championship October 8 by the slimmest of margins.

How slim? Their win was a scant 0.15 of a point better than the runner-up in the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association-sponsored event.

And right on the heels of that achievement the band traveled to Orlando, Fla., for a Bands of America regional marching band competition, bringing home the Music Caption Award for having the highest score in their class.

Heady stuff, indeed.

Seven OBA judges scored the bands competing at Putnam North High School in four categories – individual and ensemble music, individual and ensemble visual, general effect/music and general effect/visual.

Washington scored 67.4 out of a possible 100 points to win the Class 2A state championship. Runner-up was Morris with a score of 67.25.

There were challenges and a few stumbling blocks from the start, according to the band’s director Jordan Ford.

“Our assistant director moved the week before school started in August, putting us in a bind,” he said.

However, he didn’t have to look far to find a solution.

Cody Sirk, a music education graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, was teaching saxaphone lessons at Washington.

Would he be interested in taking on the assistant director’s mantle? He would.

The two set about creating a new show for the band.

The theme they selected was Monsters and the show built on the “Monsters Inc.,” movie.

Neither man specializes in choreography – “but we both can teach it,” Ford said – so they hired out that job.

“It’s worked very well for us,” Ford said.

With a theme in place and the staffing issue solved, the men faced one of their biggest challenges – helping the band members to believe in themselves.

When Sirk came on, he said the students’ feelings  were  negative regarding their ability to enter and win contests.

Then the band competed at Mustang, winning the Class A championship there.

It was a game changer and brought the band’s thinking around to “Why not us?”

“There were some really tough days,” Ford admitted.

“We tried to get the students to buy  into that mindset,” Sirk said. “That’s what drove them so hard to attain these goals.”

Planning the Orlando trip started long before their contest wins.

It’s no simple matter to book travel arrangements for 59 band members, all their instruments and equipment and 23 parent chaperones.

They made the 24-hour trip on charter buses, with an overnight stop each way. Twenty-eight bands were entered in the Orlando Regional Championship. The line-up included 19 from Florida, three from Georgia, two from South Carolina and one each from North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma.

Ford admits he wouldn’t have chosen to take an out-of-state trip on the heels of the state championship.

“It was tough,” he said. “It made for a long and hard season.”

The pride both men have in the marching band and its achievements is plain to see.

And both lay that success to the band’s “why not us?” attitude.

“I wish I could single all of them out,” Ford said. “So many deserve to be recognized,”

In lieu of that, here are the statistics. The Washington band roster includes two drum majors, three flutes, five clarinets, nine saxaphones, seven trumpets, four trombones, four mellophones, three baritones, two tubas, 11 front ensemble, five drumline and four color guards.

Preliminary work on next year’s show will begin with visual basics and fundamental marching skills in May.

“We will be graduating a lot of seniors this year,” Ford said. “There’s no telling what the band is going to look like next  year.”

Granted, he and Sirk have their eyes on some of the program’s younger student musicians

Sirk, too, will graduate in May and is still considering his options and the possibility of remaining at Washington.

“I really do enjoy the band program here,” he said, adding he will weigh his options and what is best for his family.

The band program has 132 students in grades six through 12.

The ensembles are Marching Band, Jazz Band, High School Concert Band, 7th & 8th Grade Concert Band and Beginning Band.

Ford said there is also a non-competitive Basketball Pep Band.

It makes for a busy schedule for both men.

Ford has been at Washington since 2015. He is from Owasso and in his high school days marched with the Pride of Owasso.

Sirk is from Altus where he was also in the marching band.

“Both,” Sirk said, “are very well known and respected band programs.”

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