Nashville Trip 1997

The band's first time competing at the Vanderbilt Marching Invitational was unforgettable. Taking the five hour bus ride was only the start of an incredible trip. Waking up only a few hours after getting into the hotel made the morning rehearsal more than the usual challenge. At this competition we were in Class A and performed earlier in the day than other competitions so the band was able to see other bands perform. We had a great performance even though during the show the duct tape that was the high school hash marks was coming off and part of the field was taken by the Rolling Stones Stage that was set up from the night before. Since we had about an hour before awards all of our instruments were put away and we were sitting up in the stands in uniform. During the awards ceremony the band was at attention in the stands listening to all of the different awards. We won our class and most of the awards in it and were just waiting for the overall awards. The band won a couple of the caption awards so we were expecting to be in the top three or four overall, but the announcer passed the runner up so we were just glad to have been there. When the Grand Champion Award was announced most of the fans expected Pope High School to win and their drum majors even stepped out to accept it, except we had won. That night we enjoyed pizza that was planned for us and were able to see how close the scores really were (tenths of a point.) The next day we enjoyed a great performance in front of the Hard Rock Cafe and headed home.