Band headed back to State Contest

The Wills Point Tiger Band program has been a model of consistency for nearly two decades, entering the 2018-’19 school year stringing together seven consecutive appearances in the UIL State Marching Band Contest.

Any thought that Wills Point’s impressive streak was in danger of coming to an end with the departure of longtime director John Young and promotion of Nick Kornegay were firmly put to rest over the past two weeks as the Tiger Band continued its string of excellence by earning straight 1’s at the UIL Marching Contest in Mesquite Oct. 17 before finishing fourth overall in a loaded field at the UIL Area Contest to qualify for the 4A State Marching Contest in San Antonio.

Kornegay was candid about his thoughts in extending Wills Point’s run of state appearances stating, “Relief! There’s a lot of pressure to come in to a job like this that has had so much success.”

The Tiger Band’s 2018 show, which features selections from the Peer Gynt Suite as well as Radiohead’s Creep, is entitled “Ascension.”

Explained Kornegay, “Throughout the show we go through the process of what it take to better yourself.”

Competing against 25 other schools at the Area contest, Wills Point placed fifth overall in the prelims with 27 total points, behind Argyle with 13 points, Canton with 14 points, Melissa with 19 points, Farmersville with 23 points, and ahead of Community with 31 points, Mabank with 34 points, Anna with 37 points, Aubrey with 40 points and Gainesville with 66 points.

Those 10 schools advanced to the finals of the event, with the top five finishers advancing to the 4A State Marching Contest. The Tiger Band improved its overall position from the prelims, moving up a spot to take fourth overall with 22 points. Other schools advancing included with Argyle in first with seven points, Melissa in second with 12 points, Canton in third with 18 points, and Anna with in fifth with 23 points. 

Kornegay explained the band’s mindset stating, “We expected the kids to have the best performance they could! We have talked a lot about how the performances are the only thing we can control. It was a long day! Our first performance was at 8:45 a.m., which meant leaving Wills Point at 6 a.m. After our prelims run we rented a hotel conference room to have a place for the kids to eat lunch and take a nap. We came back to the stadium refreshed and ready to perform again in Finals.”

The program was essentially unchanged from prelims to the finals with directors focusing on smaller details to improve the overall show. “There wasn’t much that we could tweak. We needed less individual mistakes and tried to get them to focus on the performance instead of the pressure of the contest.”

The Tiger Band could be well positioned to make another leap forward heading into State with its large group of underclassmen gaining both experience and confidence with each passing week.

“We were excited to place where we did at Area, especially against such tough competition! We also know that we can perform better than what we did Saturday and are excited to have more time to work on the show this week. Our level of maturity has grown so much this year. We’ve really focused on how we treat each other in practice and how to work together as a team.”

Kornegay continued, “We have made a couple of tweaks to better the show and fix some issues. We want the kids to be able to have the best performance possible so that they can take in the whole State Marching Contest experience knowing they gave it everything they had.”

The Tiger Band is scheduled to give a public performance of their show Nov. 5 at Ken Autry Davis Field beginning at 8 p.m. before departing for the State Contest in San Antonio.