WAYNE CO. WV — The marching band at Wayne High School had a season to remember in 2019. After placing high in multiple competitions throughout the fall semester, the ‘Red Regime’ put a great big cherry on top by earning a Grand Champion designation in the Blue Division at the West Virginia Marching Band Invitational last weekend.
“The scores were close but we did enough to get the job done. Being able to edge out that division was great, especially since we finished as runners-up last year,” band director Tyler Davis said. “The kids take a lot of pride in what they do and it’s great to see them come together and accomplish something like this.”
Davis is in his fourth year as the band director, and this is the first WV State Grand Champion award under his direction.
Twenty-eight high school bands from across the state of West Virginia competed at Laidley Field for the fifth annual Marching Band Invitational sponsored by the WVDCH, WV Higher Education Policy and WV Dept. of Education and the Arts. Bands were divided into five classes and are judged on general effect, marching and maneuvering, music, music effect, percussion, drum major, color guard, majorettes and feature twirler.
The Red Regime won first place awards in band, percussion, color guard, and drum major.
Collectively, it was an improvement from the same competition in 2018. While Wayne’s group won awards for band and percussion, they fell short in the other three divisional categories (color guard, drum major, soloist) and finished as Grand Champion runners-up to the Paden City Junior-Senior High School marching band.
Courtesy of W.O.W. and Wayne Co. News
