The State’s readers choose the Midlands’ top high school marching band. Here’s who won
The readers’ pick for the best high school marching band in the Midlands will compete this weekend to be the judges’ pick for a state championship.
Irmo High School won The State’s poll of the best Midlands high school marching bands with 37% of the vote, and 2,585 votes.
Dreher High School, which convincingly won a similar poll at the end of last year’s band season, came in second with 29% of the vote (2,027), followed by North Central at 7% and Chapin High at 6%.
The poll results came at a key time for the Yellow Jackets, who are scheduled to perform in the 3A state finals at 11:30 a.m. this Saturday at Westwood High School.
Hannah Redd, the first-year band director at Irmo High, found out about the poll from some of her students, who were sharing it with friends and family to drive up their vote total.
“I was excited to see momentum for a poll that supports band programs within the area,” Redd said. “Students were promoting it, parents were promoting it, and I was just watching as it all happened, and we ended up winning.”
For many of the players in the Irmo band, it’s become a ready-made group of friends, even for those like Hans Chigbu, who admits “my mother forced me to do it.”
”But it felt like I was at home,” the 17-year-old saxophone player said. “It was very inviting. It’s not like there are different cliques or you’re not feeling wanted. It’s always inviting and wholesome.”
Redd said it was particularly gratifying to get such recognition this year, the first truly competitive band season since the pandemic struck two years ago, scrambling band competitions along with everything else.
“My only complete season was freshman year three years ago,” said Reed Crosby, a senior mellophone player and “field commander” with a leadership role in the 68-member band this year.
“This year has been quite nice,” said Crosby. “It’s been a good learning experience.”
Junior Spencer Stevens, a saxophonist, remembers the 2020-21 season when, as a COVID precaution, the band didn’t sit or play in the stands during games.
“That hindered us, because when we had to play in ‘21-’22, we had to pick back up the stand tunes,” he said. “Especially if that was your second year and you hadn’t played them before, that made it harder.”
Redd, a University of South Carolina grad leading her first high school band after earning her master’s from Penn State, said getting back into a focus on performing is a big part of this season.
“A topic we’ve really focused on this season has been the gratification we get from audiences and seeing your work on display,” Redd said. “We don’t view ourselves as the best, especially in LexRich5 because we have such a collaborative approach with Chapin and Dutch Fork. They were just as excited to see the community come together. It’s very heartwarming.”
The band students shared the poll among themselves on their Slack channel, before spreading it as far and wide as they could.
“I actually helped run the Instagram page for the band in Irmo, and it was pretty instrumental getting it out through social media,” Crosby said.
Chigbu first saw the poll shared on Instagram, and then forwarded it to his friends in other Irmo sports.
“I always knew we had a really good support network for the band, a lot of people who support us, but it was like ‘wow’ to see all the people that supported us, in a numerical aspect,” he said.
Now the band’s attention is shifting to the state competition this weekend. Clarinet player Savannah Stephens, 15, started playing in the band when she was still in middle school.
“The last time we were at state, I was in sixth grade,” Stephens said. “I remember how much fun it was. Just the excitement, the competition, it’s so much fun.”
Players are going over the judges’ notes from the preliminary round last weekend.
”We’re working more on visuals,” said Stevens, the saxophonist. “That’s choreography, but also just marching in general, marching in time, place feet the same way. Trying to make everything else uniform.”
But regardless of where Irmo finishes this weekend, its players have already earned a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie.
”I think everyone should join marching band,” said Stephens, the clarinet player. “People look down on it because they think it’s not a real sport, but it is. It’s so much fun, and the friends you make you’re going to stay with.”
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