Two Award Winning Bands In One School District

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Recently, two area schools took home top honors in the 2018 2-A State Marching Band Championship Competition and they are both from the same school district.

To add to the accomplishment, these bands get very little funding from the district, so how do they manage to field award winning talent?

Those band directors say it was all made possible through the help of the band parents, boosters, and communities.

The East Webster and Eupora High School marching bands both move to the beat of their own drum, but one thing they’re in step on is fielding award winning bands.

“We are, you know, self funded. All done through the booster club and fundraisers and my band parents and people in the community this year have been really, really good in stepping up and we’ve gotten some donations for some things that we needed. So, that’s just how we make the world go round here,” says East Webster High School band director, Jesse Yates.

“Once you’re a band booster, you’re always a band booster, so we have a lot of people in the community that support us, who have students in band, and you know, business owners help in that respect with anytime we need sponsors and that thing,” says Eupora High School band director, Chad Hawkins.

That support has helped lead to two statewide award winning bands in one school district.

“The top four in 2A are all from this area because we were first and second was Calhoun City, third being Eupora, and fourth was Bruce. So, we’re all right here from the same area. We’re all really good friends and so it made it really neat.”

Yates says parents and the booster club make things like that possible.

Awards, competitions, travel, uniforms, and instruments don’t come cheap.

“Yearly, on marching band, it’s not unusual for a band to spend $40,000 to $50,000 on a marching season.”

And Yates says that’s in the ‘small band world.’

Hawkins says if it wasn’t for the boosters, a band wouldn’t be possible in a school that gets no other funding.

“A really well rounded education includes the arts and when you take that out, it’s a recipe for disaster, I think from an educational standpoint.”

If your school district’s band placed in the 2018 competition, please let us know by sending pictures and we will post it on our website.

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