Just some background to start you off...our band hasn't always been a competition band. In fact, until a few years ago we'd never gone to a single contest. Then, six years ago, the impossible happened...we made it to state. It was incredible for them...I never knew it myself, even my brother wasn't quite in high school yet. But they started a tradition that we've followed faithfully. My freshman year we qualified at our first competition!! But every year would bring the same fate...we'd go to state, and we'd get a II. An excellent rating isn't bad...but it could've been better. Every year we'd march our best, go up in the stands and wait in hushed anticipation for our scores...every year, the announcement would be "Wauseon, your overall rating is...two."

The first few years it wasn't a big deal, they were thrilled just to have gone to state...but as we kept going, and kept getting twos, it got worse. By my sophomore year, I was sobbing all three hours home. This year we made it again. But this year we were determined to get that elusive one. It wasn't going to slip through our grasp yet again. This year, we would break all of our own records.

In case you haven't figured it out, this is the story of this year's state competition, and how we broke all the rules...and came home champions.