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October 31, 2022
Band finishes fourth in area
The Pride of Howe at the UIL Region 25 Marching Contest at Celina. Courtesy photo. The Pride of Howe recently closed out “Bandtober” and the competitive marching season with successful region and area performances. The UIL Region 25 Marching Contest was held at Celina HS on October 12—the day classes resumed after the Howe ISD fall break. “This year’s region contest brought unique challenges we’d never had before so we were very pleased with that performance,” said band director, Angie Liss. She further explained, “You get into a routine with rehearsals, ball games and contests but fall break threw everything a little off kilter. We knew we’d have to rehearse regardless of the school calendar and I’m so proud of the kids for coming in for the late morning rehearsals on their ‘break’ so we could still maintain the same number of rehearsal hours we would have had if we had been in class.” The practice paid off and the band received first division ratings from all judges and qualified for the area contest. In speaking about the region contest, Liss also expressed her deep appreciation and respect for the rest of the band staff, Julie Cook, David Bilyeu and Brandon Manuel. “My granddaughter was born the day before the region contest. I had to make a choice to be with my band or be with my family. I’m so thankful that Howe ISD administrators appreciate the priority of ‘family first’ and I’m
especially grateful for my fellow directors. I knew everything was in good hands and I was able to enjoy precious time with family.” The area contest was held in Denton at C.H. Collins Athletic Complex on October 22nd and also brought its own set of challenges in the form of 30 mile per hour winds and wind gusts of even higher. “In order to use our props in prelims we had to make some quick adjustments to our prop heights, shako straps and even zip tied our microphone stand to our stage to keep them from blowing away,” said Liss, “and even still we had sideways shakos and dads holding props being lifted off the ground! It was crazy!” Sideways shakos and all, the prelims performance was enough to earn a spot under the lights in finals. “There was an energy we all felt after the finals performance and I think we knew it was one of our best runs,” said Liss. That performance proved to be a solid one in the eyes of the judges as well and the band finished 4th in area behind the much larger bands from Whitesboro, Commerce and Holliday. Although the UIL Legislative Council recently approved a policy change that should take effect in August 2023 allowing bands the opportunity to ad-
vance to the state contest every year, under current UIL procedures 3A bands can only advance to the state level in odd numbered years. Had this been an advancement year, The Pride of Howe’s fourth place finish in an extremely competitive area would have qualified them for the state championships. The band will now turn its attention to finishing out football season, allregion tryouts, Christmas concerts and
parades, winterguard, UIL solos and ensembles and UIL concert season. Liss also that noted that work has already begun on next fall’s marching band show.
