Show Band Awards Night & Season Wrap-Up

Wednesday was the annual Show Band Awards Night in the Kamiak Commons. At the beginning of the evening, we watched a slideshow featuring pictures from throughout the season that was put together by Alex Brinkley. Then each student was called up and received a Participation Award from Mr. Bathurst, and the drum majors were thanked. The Student Leadership Committe was also called up to be recognized.

Our head chaperone and the band liaison both took time to recognize our wonderful parents, boosters, and volunteers. The staff thanked the parents for trusting the staff with their children, and for allowing us to have such a successful season.

Colorguard Awards were given next, by guard director Jon Brown. This was followed by the percussion staff and percussion awards. The visual staff, brass staff, and woodwind staff also gave out awards.

Many awards were given out to the colorguard, percussion, and winds, including Most Improved, Best Marcher, MVP, Most Inspirational, Most Outstanding Section (shout out to the Lowheads!), and awards for Most Outstanding in Class.

Mr. Bathurst called all of the staff members up to be recognized and gave them giftcards. The students also had a surprise for the staff. They wrote little thank you notes to the staff to show appreciation for their dedication to the show band this year. Each staff member was presented with a ring of thank you notes.

It was great to get together as a band for the last time. It was fun to eat cake, see the staff dressed up, and recognize each member of the band. We ended the night by watching our finals performance from Championships. Some of the sections gathered together with their staff afterwards to thank them one last time.

SEASON RECAP & HIGHLIGHTS:

• Band Camp was August 13-17, 2012. A very successful camp, a great time, skit night was awesome, the dance was incredibly fun!
• This season we had the hardest-working show band ever to pass through the halls of Kamiak High School
• September 14, 2012 - First pep assembly day and first football game!
• September 22, 2012 - Goddard Day & Alumni Reunion! We were very excited to reveal our show to the parents and the community.
• September 26, 2012 - The Homecoming Parade!
• Our first competition was the Sunset Classic in Hillsboro, Oregon on October 6, 2012. We placed fourth in finals with a score of 77.05
• On October 13, 2012 Kamiak took the Sweepstakes award at Tumwater High School with a finals score of 87.4, also taking the awards for Best General Effect, Music, Marching, Colorguard, and Percussion
• Our third show was the Puget Sound Festival of Bands in Everett on October 27, 2012. Kamiak took second overall with a score of 87.08 along with the awards for People's Choice, High Colorguard, and High Percussion.
• Championships weekend was November 2-4, 2012. Kamiak took fifth place in Championships, competing against the best bands in the northwest and received a score of 87.45! This is the highest Kamiak has ever placed at the NWAPA Marching Band Championships.
• November 7, 2012 Kamiak Show Band Awards Night
• For photos and videos from the season check out the Photo Gallery

DATES TO REMEMBER:
November 13 - Winter Percussion Open House
November 14- Jazz Night
November 15 - KPAB Booster Meeting
November 20 - Winter Percussion Open House
November 27-29 - Winter Percussion Auditions
December 6 - Band Concert
December 16 - Messiah Concert

Championships Recap

Bus One leaving Mukilteo on Friday (photo by Cynthia Davis)

On Friday after school we loaded the buses and trailers for our trip down to Hillsboro. By 3:30PM we had left the school and were on our way to Oregon. We hit traffic, so we were a bit late to stop for dinner at Exit 108. Our original itinterary had us stopping for dinner at five, but because of the traffic our dinner break was from 6:15-7.

It had been raining pretty hard, and after the staff checked out the field at Tenino High School where we were supposed to rehearse, we decided to skip it and push through to Hillsboro. We had a quick bathroom break about an hour after dinner and arrived at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro at around 11PM.
After unloading the buses we had a quick meeting with Mr. Bathurst to discuss our plans for the evening. Lights out was at 11:45PM.



Back of the line for breakfast!

Wake-up call was at 7:30AM, followed by breakfast at 8:30. By 9:30 we were headed to Hillsboro Stadium for an early warm-up block since we had missed our rehearsal the night before.

Our morning rehearsal/warm-up block at Hillsboro Stadium (photo by Stuart Pitts)

After our morning visual and music warm-up block we headed to lunch. At 1:15PM we were back at camp, changing into uniform for our Prelims warm-up. At 2:00 we walked to our warm-up area. Our Prelims performance was at 3:45.

Headed to our prelims performance (photo courtesy of Stuart Pitts)

We did not feel great about our prelims show. The whole show had just felt a bit off. After going to the awards ceremony, we received fifth place with a score of 86. Only .5 away from Evergreen High School! We had never placed this high before and were very excited to perform in finals.

Dinner was cooked by our lovely parent volunteers. We ate burgers, salad, veggies, and pudding. A few alumni even stopped by the camp to say hello.

As we prepared for our finals performance there was a lot of excitement in the air. We were ready to give it our all. We headed to our last warm-up as the 2012 Kamiak Show Band.

Nick says a few words before we head to our finals performance (photo by Stuart Pitts)

We walked off of the field after finals feeling great about our performance. It had definitely been the best run of the season. We circled up to listen to a words from Stuart Pitts, Nick Benson, and Mr. Bathurst. All of them were very excited and very proud of what we had accomplished this year. A lot of tears were shed. After this we broke off quickly into sections and subsections, thanking the staff and each other for everything put into this program.

We changed out of uniform and headed off to the awards ceremony. We were happy to learn that our score had jumped to 87.45 and we had finished fifth, higher than the show band had ever placed!

These seniors got Nick Benson a birthday cake, since his birthday was the day after Championships.

At around 11:20PM we left Hillsboro Stadium and headed home. We stopped twice for bathroom breaks. One in Toutle Creek. We arrived safely at Kamiak at around 3:00AM (because of daylight savings time).

Thanks to everyone who supported us this year. Every staff member, chaperone, roadie, volunteer, and fan means the world to us. We could not do it without you!

Check the Gallery for more photos from the weekend.

CHAMPIONSHIPS WEEKEND!

3:30PM The buses have left Kamiak
7:10PM Reloading the buses after dinner break.

11:19PM We have arrived at Glencoe High School
8:24 Waiting for breakfast
9:30 On buses headed to morning rehearsal
12:13 Lunch time
11:10PM Kamiak placed fifth (THE HIGHEST IN KAMIAK HISTORY!) with a score of 87.45. We are so excited about this show and feel great about our performance.
More details in a recap tomorrow. We're headed home!
3:15AM Home safe and sound

Last Thursday Rehearsal & Senior Ceremony

Practice began at 5:30PM as usual. We were lucky enough to have the turf field, which isn't soggy, and the weather held up too.
We worked through basics, and you could feel the excitement in the air. After basics we headed to music warm-ups, brass and woodwinds separate. During woodwind warm-ups, they did a round where just the seniors played, since it was their last rehearsal ever. The brass were reminded that this was the last time this group would ever rehearse together at Kamiak.

Everyone joined again to work on choreography with some of our visual staff. We then set to work on the Closer and the end of the show, working hard to perfect it. Half of rehearsal was spent on this portion of our show, because up to this point it was the weakest. After spending so much time running it this evening, and having Nick Benson on the field, we feel a lot more comfortable with the section and are excited to perform it this weekend.

We also worked on the Ravel (the middle of the show). Our show improved a lot musically today, and our dynamics are better than ever.

At 8:20PM we did our last full-run at Kamiak.


SENIOR CEREMONY
At around 8:30PM the seniors left the field and went into the stands to watch the rest of the band perform the Closer without them. The seniors made sure to cheer very loudly.
After the brief performance the students met on the track, seniors on one side, everyone else on the other. Mr. Bathurst began this part of the ceremony with a speech, thanking the seniors for all of their hard work and leadership over this season and over the past four years. Stuart Pitts, a brass/visual technician also gave a short speech. He had been the head drum major when the seniors were freshman. He talked about how much they had done for this program, how proud he was of the show band,and how far the band has come. He thanked the seniors and said that he was honored to have had the opportunity to work with this band.
There were tears on both sides of the form as everyone met in the middle to hug the seniors. More hugs were given at this senior ceremony than any other in the past. The band truly has become a family this year.

Following the senior ceremony, most people broke off into subsections. It was a fantastic night, and one that will be hard to forget. We are very excited to head down to Championships tomorrow and give it our all.



These three seniors wore the show shirts from their freshman year, "On the Edge"

More photos hopefully coming soon!

A Little Love

This week the Show Band recieved one of the best presents we ever have! The dance team took time to make and sign posters for us thanking us for supporting them and playing for them following our half time shows at football games.

 

The band loves learning new songs for the dance team, new music is always awesome, and we were glad that they enjoy it as well.

 

Some of the great comments included their love for our uniforms, particuarly the overalls, and that they enjoy watching our halfime show.

 

 

Thanks for your support dance team!