Day 18 FINALS

We started our final preparations this morning with a solid wake rehearsal - really intense.  Preparing for our 12:20 performance time required a very concentrated morning and that's exactly what we had.  It had been raining off and on all night, and again started raining as we headed over to the stadium.

As we arrived the rain did lighten up, but the field was quite slippery.  We went out and performed incredibly well.  I was so proud of them as they just went after every part of their show.  The ballad left the audience still, and they closed off with a bang.  We improved a ton over the last few days and every bit of that was on display this afternoon.

Once we finished our performance, we headed into the stands to watch.  The array of bands, the cultures, and the quality of the bands was astonishing.  We all held our breath as Stampede Band headed into competition with the big guns - we cheered loudly alongside Red Deer as they put on a spectacular show as well.  What a great weekend for Alberta!

Then came the retreat, which totaled near an hour and a half of just standing out there while the announcer stumbled through the different scores (none of the non-Dutch bands had any idea of what was being announced).  Very confusing all in all, but we stood strong (we only lost 2 members to fatigue today!) and waited till we were allowed to play ourselves off the field.

So here are the scores and rankings to the best of our understanding (please don't take this as final, as some of this is based on hearsay (the communication has not been terribly strong)).

WMC - of the bands that competed in the corps style field show competition, we placed 5th, just .01 out of 4th.  We were very close to overtaking the Brazilian band, but alas we were just a little short.  Overall we came in 9th for the 4 week competition.  Stampede Band finished 1st on the day, but 3rd overall.

WAMSB - unfortunately here we fell back to 7th (although our score did increase, not as much as the other bands).  I don' read too much into this one, except that 7th is still the highest we have ever placed, and we played on a different day than the bands who passed us - so perspective may have weighed against us.  Overall, though I would have rated our improvement as 2.5 - 3 points gain since Thursday (we didn't get that amount of improvement from the judges).  But the important thing is that they worked their butts  off and worked as hard as possible to make this happen.  

Finally tonight we had a dance party with the Colombian band.  We played songs back and forth (we ran out pretty quick)  and just had a blast - we learned the rhumba and just had a great exchange.  Thanks for an afternoon of craziness

Anyways, I can't type any more I am so tired.  Im off the bed - gett Y'all

Day 18-19 Rehearsal, Maastrich Caves, Marching Competition

Day 17 was pretty straightforward day for us... we rehearsed hard in the morning working in some changes from the suggestions we received from the judges. Some very substantial improvements! We had a very neat sightseeing trip to the Maastrich Caves, a manmade cave system with some 200 km of dugout caverns. It dates back to the Romans, who began excavating limestone blocks for their buildings. The kids got to experience total darkness as our guides left with the lanterns for a brief moment. Of course, the kids and staff took every opportunity to try to scare each other!

Day 18 saw us up early and back at rehearsal... our students have been pushing so hard to make every improvement possible. They are showing some signs of fatigue, though so we decided to get in an afternoon nap after the parade competition, which I might add went very well! They marched incredibly straight lines, and navigated the course including the dreaded countermarch very respectably. We placed 5th with a score of 80.00

After our nap we had to head back to the stadium for the full retreat, which was pretty tough. It was quite warm on the field and we stood still for at least 30 minutes. We had a few members who weren't feeling great, but we came back to the campus and again had some rest around dinner.

We finished the night with what would be our last practice run through of the year! It was the strongest performance yet, which really bodes well for tomorrow. They have shown so much heart and I have every confidence that tomorrow will be 100% successful. Now we are off to bed, we are all staggering a little, we have all put every effort into our performance preparation. Wish us luck tomorrow - we go on at 12:20 in the afternoon, so 4:20am in Calgary - send us your vibes!!!!


Sorry no pics tonight but we got a video up on youtube of the kids partying out in the parking lot after they found out they got 5th...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3f4zhd5nRk