West TN marching bands compete in State Finals Championship

SMYRNA, Tenn. — Hard work pays off, but the band isn’t done just yet.

On Saturdays in the fall, all eyes go to the dozens of marching bands across the state as they compete to be the best of the best in Tennessee.

“Unless you’ve lived in Band-land, it doesn’t make sense to most people,” Crockett County High School Band Director Leah Foust said.

The bands practice for hours during the heat of the summer, marching up to 10 miles in a 12-hour day.

“We’ll have four- and five-hour practices. We’re out there from 8 to 8 one week and 8 to 5 the next week,” Foust said.

Adamsville Junior/Senior High School Band Director David Stevens says the performances and practices put bands on the same level as many athletes.

“You’re performing an art on top of the physical demand of that of an athlete,” Stevens said. 

Students say they wouldn’t trade those long hours for anything else.

“I love performing. It’s just – I love the thrill of it, I love being around people, I love seeing everyone’s faces while I’m performing,” Nicci Gamble, a freshman at South Gibson County High School, said.

“It’s just been really fun, all the years. We’ve had great shows, great times. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Milan High School senior Cecelia Pittman said.

Bands compete each year for one thing — to take home the trophy at State Finals.

“Their whole determination was to play one last time for the seniors and, considering all the seniors came off the field crying, I think they did that,” Foust said.

But this year’s state competition meant a little more for Foust.

“It’s hard enough when it’s any senior. Every year it kind of gets to me more. This year, since my daughter was a senior, it’s been a whole other ballgame,” she said.

State is the Superbowl for these bands, but only one can take home the 2017 title.

“It’s elation because those other bands, Elizabethton and other groups, are so good. It doesn’t mean as much if they’re not,” Stevens said.

At the end of the night, Adamsville Junior/Senior High School walked out of the stadium with another trophy — a memory Stevens said will last a lifetime.

“All I could do is smile and it was — you imagine that moment for a long time and there it is,” Stevens said. “That was my fifth, but it felt like my first because it was something this band program had never done before.”

Adamsville Junior/Senior High School won the Division II State Championship title this year over 20 other marching bands from across the state that competed earlier this month.

Five of the bands who competed in the finals are from West Tennessee schools.