The OHS band has made history again at BOA (Bands of America) Ohio on Sept. 28. 

The band competed in the 3A class and earned fourth placed in their preliminary performance, which allowed them to move onto finals. 

Saxophone section leader Sophie Kettenbrink (11) said, “finding out we made finals was such a surreal experience for me.” 

After their finals performance, the band placed seventh out of 18 bands with a score of 69.65

“We were with bands that I knew consistently made high places at grand nationals,” said Kettenbrink. “And here we were competing with them in finals and our scores were close.”

Next, the band will be traveling to the Fort Zumwalt North River City Showcase on Oct. 12. 

The competition will feature high class bands like O’Fallon Township, a previous Grand National champion, and Rockwood Summit, a previous semi-finalist. 

“We can only control what we do,” said Mr. Vance Brakefield, the band director. “I’m not nervous about the other schools because we can’t control anything about them. We can only control how we practice and how prepared our kids are.”

To end their season on a high note, the band will perform at BOA St. Louis, which is a super-regional, on Oct. 19. 

“We want to score well. The level of competition is a lot more intense at a super regional than a regional,” said Brakefield. 

The band’s big goal is to get a division one rating, which is a score of 75. 

“We’re going to try our best. The past two years, even though our score shot up eight points, we were 34th both years,” said Kettenbrink. “Even though we didn’t win big at Ohio, there’s always room for improvement.”