The Madison Marching Dodgers are hosting their first competition, The Tournament of Bands, at our own Ted Monica Stadium this Sunday. On October 6 at 1 pm bands from all around the area will come to Madison High to compete for a spot in the Atlantic Coast Championship. In previous years the Marching Dodgers have done great in competition and expectations are high for the upcoming year.
The director of the band, Russel Batsch, asserts his confidence in a band that is “a little bit more skilled than our bands have been in the past.” The rankings come from different categories such as musicianship, marching technique, color guard, percussion, etc. These scores are added up to create a general score and then compared against other bands around the same size. Currently the Marching Dodgers are ranked 11 out of 113 bands, which is the best ranking the team has ever received. Batsch seems incredibly confident in the future success of the band. This is probably due to the large amount of time the band spends practicing and competing. Jim Nagle, whose sister Kathleen Nagle, is in the marching band says, “last Saturday she left before I woke up and didn’t get home until midnight.”
The band is widely seen as one of the most dedicated organizations in the school. As well as competing in competition, they perform during halftime at the football games and in local parades. The MDO encourages Madison fans to come and support the Marching Dodgers this Sunday at one pm!
Austin H. p2. • Oct 29, 2013 at 5:28 pm
I really enjoyed this article because for one thing is that i am in the marching band and i think that it is a great activity if you love music and would like to do more than just concert band.
Michael 92 • Oct 29, 2013 at 3:40 pm
I’m in the marching band too and I agree that it is a huge time commitment. I’m in the percussion, and like you said, we are judged on the field. We are in ACC’s at 16th place.