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(All photos and interviews by Brian Munoz)
EDWARDSVILLE – The Tiger Ambush Classic crowds were the largest in the nine years of the event and a total of 24 bands competed, making it another successful venture for the Edwardsville Marching Band.
Edwardsville Marching Band Director Marvin Battle said he thought every band entered had an excellent performance on Saturday evening.
“It was awesome; standing room only,” he said. “This is probably one of the biggest crowds in the nine years that we’ve hosted the Tiger Ambush Classic. Band wise, we’ve had 24 bands before but this year we had a lot more of the larger sized schools who bring their bands out; which makes for even bigger competition.”
Battle added he thought the event went great, even with all the rain and bad weather beforehand.
“We had all this rain and weather which didn’t allow us to perform last night, we had to make changes that we weren't able to add into the performance so it was nice to see the kids stepped up and were ready for it. I thought it was an excellent performance from us.”
Here are assorted comments from some Edwardsville High School band members:
(EHS) Senior trumpet player Brendan Korak, of Edwardsville: “It was a pretty good run, the highlight of the show tonight is the ballad especially the impact moment in it.”
(EHS) Sophomore color guard member Tyler Pope, of Edwardsville: I feel like my catches were pretty good tonight and the guard overall was very in the zone tonight.
(EHS) Junior Color Guard member Maria Arzuagas: “I thought the show was amazing. I feel good about myself, my tosses were solid. Despite some costume change troubles, it was a great performance. My favorite part of the show is the silence toss.”
Edwardsville HS Color Guard director, Leah Cummins: "I think tonight’s performance went really well, I’m very proud of them. The highlight of the show tonight was seeing the entire production come together with the costume changes and every flag and all of the energy. In the beginning, the white roses are represented by the white dresses, flags. As we go into the ballad you see that we change into the red tops leading into the battle which is to be continued. “
Battle said every show his group has done he has completely loved.
“From the time that we come out [onto the field] with “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal, it helps set the tone for everything we’re going to do. I like to bring something with a theme that’s in there that tells a story the entire time,” he said. “It makes it great because the kids buy into it, it’s not a show that they can’t feel motivated by. It’s something they enjoy and they’re working hard to do it, and that’s what’s great for us.
Battle said he cannot think of another contest where the principal comes out every year to hand out awards and assist through the day like Edwardsville High School Principal Dennis Cramsey and others.
“All of our high school principals were here at some time in the day to just lend a helping hand and to help with anything we needed. I can’t think of other communities or schools that would show that support to all of their activities beyond the sports. I have great band parents that help us do all of this. There are a lot of man hours and manpower that goes behind doing something in this magnitude. I have been very blessed to be part of this community,” he said.
One line stood out to Battle and the others when they listened to shows: The line that the queen [from Alice in Wonderland] says, ‘Who’s been painting my roses red?’ I thought, ‘We can do a show about the garden’ so if you look at the props, everything is built around the garden. The show is around how if you introduce one thing that is different in the garden it can start pollinating and overtake everything else that is there. Not only are their color changes but the mood of the music also changes. The show developing with the color guard uniforms and the rest of the show really makes it for me.”
Battle closed by saying: “For us, we have another movement to add on and some things to add in. As I tell people, there are a lot of things that we changed from last weeks show that we put in today. So we’re always changing and making the show better each year. You can’t say ‘Oh hey, I know what the show is I watched it last week,’ because we will be making changes until the very last show is done.”
Dr. Melissa Gustafson-Hinds, Director of Bands, O’Fallon Township High School, said: “I thought the performance was great. I’m super excited for the kids. They have been working really hard and we’ve had a multitude of changes. We had our design in team for the Metro East Marching Classic and they’ve been putting in a lot of hours in. We’ve been throwing a lot of stuff at the kids as well and tonight was good. We don’t want give anything away on what might be coming for the rest of the season, but we have some special effects coming, even more than what we have now.”
(EHS) Senior drum major Eleanor Stamor had perhaps the most memorable comments of all Edwardsville band members to sum up the day: “I thought it was a good performance, the energy was there, a few things here and there but overall it was a great performance,” she said. “I really love movement two especially when we hit the big moment in [the movement], it’s just really beautiful.”
Tiger Ambush Classic Results:
Class 1A
- 1st - Wesclin (Music, Color Guard) 52.0
- 2nd - Mater Dei (Visual, Percussion, Color Guard) 50.5
- 3rd - Effingham 48.8
Class 2A
- 1st - Mehlville (Music) 58.65
- 2nd - St. Charles, MO. (Percussion) 51.15
- 3rd - Salem (Visual, Color Guard) 49.35
Class 3A
- 1st - Timberland, MO 67.75
- 2nd - Parkway South, MO (Music) 67.7
- 3rd - Francis Howell Central, MO (Percussion) and Fort Zumwalt East (Visual, Color Guard) 66.15
Class 4A
- 1st - O'Fallon Township (Music, Visual, Percussion) 80.35
- 2nd - Lindbergh, MO 73.93
- 3rd - Belleville East and Washington, MO (Color Guard) 71.8
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