The Middletown High School marching band and dance line recently won awards for Best Visuals, Best Color Guard, and Best Overall Effect for the Maryland State Championship Group III-A.
Ironically, their theme this year was Chicago the Musical, while the last time they won states, 11 years ago, their theme was also Chicago, but based on the band rather than the Broadway play.
They won with an overall score of 87.538, and performed selections from Chicago including “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango” and “Razzle Dazzle.”
The MHS marching band and dance line put in a lot of time and hard work into preparation for the competition.
“We practice three to four days a week after school until five,” said Paul Karth, MHS freshman.
Will Diederich, MHS junior, said, “It means that all the hard work we put into everything has really kind of paid off and it really shows that when we come together as a team, we can do anything.”
Winning the competition changed peoples’ lives as well as their band careers.
“It’s really made my senior year off to a great start. For the seniors, it makes us happy and appreciate all the hard work that we’ve done for the past four years in marching band and dance line,” said MHS senior, Logan Bramhall, assistant captain of the dance line.
The competition makes people appreciate what they did and what can be done.
“Winning states made me appreciate dance more because it shows that hard work really does pay off,” said Bramhall.
Next year when they look to repeat their victory, the only mystery is what their theme will be to attempt to do it again.
Tristan Bowman, MHS freshman said, “We have a vague idea on what the theme will be next year because Mr. Shearer gives us clues.”
