The Oakville Marching Tigers’ wish came true when they won their first competition of the season on Saturday, Sept. 15. The OHS band received the award of Grand Champions of the Farmington competition with a leading score of 80.0.

OHS band earned the best score out of all 17 schools at the competition. In their AAA division, they placed first, beating the second place band by four points. Also, they received the captions for Outstanding Visual and Outstanding Music for their division.

“It was nice to get out and perform,” said head director Mr. Vance Brakefield. “It’s good for the kids to have a positive reaction about the performance.”  

This year’s show, Bottled Up, features gigantic genie bottles and a soprano saxophone soloist by David O’Donnell (12). The show follows the plot of Aladdin’s three wishes being granted by the genie with many changes to the band’s “traditional” marching style.

Unlike last year’s show, “the music and story has a darker mood and a different character,” said assistant band director Mr. Theron Perkowski. “(The show) focuses on incorporating more emotional content rather than strict traditional marching.”

In addition to new visual styles, the band also has new props, which came with new struggles. Scot Sullivan, a band parent, said some problems were building a ”skeleton” that  looked like a genie bottle, rigging it so someone could climb to the top, and trying to get enough fabric around the outside of the bottle.

The band and color guard members are appreciative of these props that were built by an “army of parents” who began working on them in July during band camp and completed them the week of the first competition. The bottles are able to be climbed by the guard and moved by the band during the show.

While there was success in building of the props for the guard, the guard’s costumes and flags were not finished before the first competition. Triona Leach (11), color guard section leader, said, “it’s the girls that win the show, not the costumes.”

While they still have a long season ahead of them, the band is off to a good start. Anna Wendling (12), head drum major, said Saturday’s performance was “really good, but this doesn’t mean we can stop working.”

The band will perform in competition at Lafayette Contest of Champions on Saturday, Sept. 22.