By RICH KEITH, Four Points News
The Vandegrift Viper Band and Vision Dance Company is the new class AAAA state champion marching band in Texas.
On Nov. 12 the band students held a medal ceremony at Austin Baptist Church and each each student received a medal provided by the state of Texas.
Each VHS Band and Vision Dance student received a gold medal from the State of Texas on Tuesday night at Austin Baptist Church.
Showing their state champion gold medals, Vandegrift drum majors Rhea Adhikary, Graham Scott, Lienne Ng and Olivia Schmitz pose with Director of Bands Jeremy Spicer (center) at the formal UIL medal ceremony held on Nov. 12.
Photo
Ann Scott
Last week on Nov. 5, in a late-night awards ceremony at the Alamodome, drum majors from Texas’ top 10 finalist schools lined up and awaited the announcement of results.
When Vandegrift was named the top band in the state the Alamodome erupted in cheers but none louder than the hundreds of Four Points parents and siblings who were going crazy in the stands. And back home the local Moviehouse and Eatery screened the UIL competition to even more families.
Vandegrift’s victory in the biennial contest completed a trifecta with two other Leander ISD school bands leading the state. Cedar Park, the defending state champion from 2011 was 2nd, and Vista Ridge was 3rd.
These three finalist winners arose from 28 band programs which had made it to the mid-week contest. Each school had succeeded in Region and Area competitions in prior weeks.
Vandegrift had honed their performance to a fine degree. Director of bands Jeremy Spicer is well aware of the attention the judges pay to both marching precision and difficulty of music. Vandegrift brought their show “Midnight’s Beauty” and was in first place following daytime preliminary performances.
“Be here now.” Those were the words that Spicer said to the band just before their finals performance. Don’t think about your homework, your parents in the stands or anything else, Spicer told the band.
VHS at the state competition last week.
The scoring from the judges showed Spicer’s words had the desired effect. The scores showed Vandegrift separated itself dramatically from the competition in finals performance.
The band’s musical program included music from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky as well as “The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens, “Battle on the Ice” from Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, and “Journey through the Snow” from the Nutcracker. Using graphic signs and costume changes for the Vision dancers, the program shows the transformation of the swans.
Four Points Middle School band director Christopher Yee was at the Alamodome, cheering on the many students who had gone through the music program there. “Your hard work yielded infinitely more than a state championship,” Yee told the Vandegrift students in a message. “I drove home to Austin inspired to work harder. Inspired to cling to my goals through the rehearsals, the frustration, the fatigue, the doubt. There are many more like me,” he said.
Vandegrift’s journey started in early August 2013 with 8-hour rehearsals four days per week. In September began the marching contest season, several of which Vandegrift won. Along the way the costumes, uniforms, choreography, props and of course music were all developed and rehearsed with the goal of peaking during the state championships.
Going into the 2013 UIL championships Vandegrift was ranked 9th in the state based on the 2011 competition. Vandegrift will now hold their state title for two years.
