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CONGRATULATIONS BAND OF DISTINCTION!

Press Release: November 6, 2006
Additional Information:
Ken Hansen, Director of Bands 816-633-1500

At 3:00am Friday morning November 3rd, busses and trailers pulled out of Odessa High School parking lot to head for Indianapolis for the Bands of America Indianapolis Regional. The Band of Distinction performed at 9am on Saturday, 5th band of the day, at the RCA Dome, home of the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts.

The Band rehearsed Friday afternoon as guests of Center Grove High School. We would like to thank the Center Grove Band for providing us a location to help us settle back into the show after the long bus trip!

Rehearsing at Center Grove High School

The Band performed a great show that earned them 1st place in the A Class along with winning all sub captions in their class including Best Music, Best Visual and Best General Effect. The phenomenal effort from the band made the Odessa High School Band of Distinction the Bands of America Indianapolis Regional Class A Champions.

Entering the RCA Dome for Preliminary Competition

Classes are determined by school size in BOA competitions. Class AA are bands about twice the size of Odessa High School, and Class AAA contain bands over three times Odessa’s size. For example; Carmel High School (Defending Grand National BOA Champions) from Indiana is a school with about 4200 students in their High School. By winning Class A the band earned the right to perform in exhibition for the Finals held that night. The top ten scoring bands, all coming from the AAA Class that day, competed that evening with the Odessa band kicking off the Finals competition with their exhibition performance. The band from Bellbrook Ohio, winner of Class AA, also performed in exhibition after all 10 competing bands finished.

Finals Retreat

Bands of America (BOA) holds Regional competitions in Fort Mill SC, Youngstown OH, Arlington TX, Houston TX, St. Petersburg FL, Townson MD, St. Louis MO, Los Angeles CA, Louisville KY, Murfreesboro TN, Ypsilanti MI, Flagstaff AZ, Indianapolis IN and San Antonio TX. Of all Class A bands competing in any BOA event this year the Odessa band holds the 2nd highest score with a 74.9. Out of 33 total bands competing at the Indy Regional there were 7 in Class A. This is the first time this season, that a Missouri band has placed in or won in their Class at any BOA competition or earned an award in any caption. This ends a spectacular year for the Odessa Band of Distinction.

Drum Majors & Guard Captains

View many more photos from the Indianapolis trip in our Photo Gallery!