DSHS Marching Band shines at Westlake Festival

Arriving back on campus after the game late Friday night, the Dripping Springs Marching Band loaded their instruments, boarded buses and were ready to perform again Saturday morning at the annual Westlake Marching Band Festival, held at Ebbie Neptune Stadium in the Eanes School District. 

Bands were judged in five areas with a possible 100 points for their performance. These were: Music Execution - 30, Marching Execution – 25, Percussion – 15, Auxiliary – 15. General Effect/Design – 15.

Waiting out a 20-minute lightning delay, the DSHS Tiger Marching Band performed it’s spectacular UIL program, “2181: Adventures in Time and Space” under Drum Majors Catherine Manning, Kassandra Sawin, Jessica Heintz and Kearsen Erwin. Soloists included Cade Smith, Manning, Sawin, Heintz, Erwin, Johnny Dollard, Drew Wilson and Erika Gossett. The band is directed by Derek Woods, James Hairston, David Duffy and Jason Dye. 

When the 5A preliminary scores were announced, the Tiger Band had won Best Auxiliary, Music Execution and Marching Execution, garnering 1st Place overall.

After a brief rest and a bite to eat, planned and coordinated by members of the Tiger Band Boosters, the band tuned up to perform in the finals that evening, cheered on by an enthusiastically loud contingent from Dripping Springs. 

Turning in an even better performance in the finals and bettering their score from the prelims, the Tiger Band finished a very close 2nd place to the very fine and much larger 6A band from Round Rock High School.

This coming Saturday, the band performs in prelims at 1:30 p.m. in the Bands of America (BOA) Competition in Waco. As always, BOA will be a very tough competition, with many of the bands having been finalists at the UIL State Marching Contest last year (5As) or year before last (6As.) 

Come cheer our outstanding Tiger Marching Band to victory! 

Each band’s performance will be adjudicated under a modified caption system of evaluation. Each judge will be responsible for a specific area of performance with regard to its contribution to the overall musical performance. This system of judging allows each judge to address a specific aspect of the band's total performance.

This contest is considered a “dress rehearsal” to the much-anticipated Region 18 UIL Marching Competition, October 23rd, held this year at nearby Toney Burger Stadium in Austin and the BOA SuperRegionals in St. Louis, for which the band will be leaving on Wednedsay, October 24th.

Congratulations, Tiger Marching Band, Color Guard, drum majors, directors and Tiger Band Boosters!

Westlake Marching Band Festival Results:

1st - Round Rock (90.1)

2nd - Dripping Springs (88.85)

3rd - Belton (82.575)

4th - Connally (81.5)

5th - Seguin (81.1)

6th - Clark (74.8)

7th - Stony Point (73.1)

8th - Akins

9th - Cedar Creek

10 - Laredo Martin