Tops ’21: Marching Ads, Spirit of Valley
Many highly competitive finishes for FHS band
“I feel fantastic about our band’s accomplishments this fall,” said Kenneth L. Carrico III, FHS director of bands. “After the mess that was 2020, one would have thought that we could have had a dip in both quantity and quality without students. I mean it was even expected by some.
“And while we were a little smaller in total students from 2019 – 170 to 160 – the quality did not decline,” he added. “In fact, it was stronger.”
The band placed second in Class 4A in the Karns High School competition Sept. 25. It also tied for first place in Music Overall for the entire day and placed third in Overall Band for the entire day in that competition.
At the Hardin Valley competition, which took place Oct. 2-3, FHS’s band placed second in Class 4A Prelims Performance, first place in Music Overall Prelims Performance, made the finals performance block, was in Top 10 Scoring Bands of the Day, placed first in Percussion Overall in finals, placed second in Music Overall in finals and placed third Overall Band in the finals.
At the Soddy Daisy competition, FHS placed second in Class 4A, placed first in Music Overall for the entire day and placed second in Overall Band for the entire day.
At the Alcoa competition, FHS placed second in Class 4A, placed first in Drum Majors in Class 4A, placed first in Music Overall for the entire day and placed second for Overall Band for the entire day.
“The students worked so hard and understood that they could not take this fall marching season for granted,” Carrico said. “It was a really special fall semester for these band students — and especially our senior students.
“While we did not win a competition this fall, we placed second or third overall at each competition out of at least 20 bands per competition,” he added. “Out of around 90 bands this fall, only one beat us in the music caption.”
“If there is one caption I prefer to win, its music. These students are amazing, and (fine arts teacher) Mrs. (Elizabeth) Gott and I are so proud of them.
Looking ahed, “We are very excited to see what the future holds for the Farragut Band program,” Carrico said.
Drum majors are Samantha Garner, Olivia Layman and Mike Qi.
