Photos by Deb Gau The Marshall High School Marching Band was one of 20 bands who took the field Saturday night during the Pursuit of Excellence band competition. Clinics held during the day helped give students additional feedback to polish their performances. Marshall’s show this year is themed around the Edgar Allan Poe poem, “The Bells.”

MARSHALL — It takes a lot of work to get more than 2,000 high school marching band and color guard members to shine on the field. And at Pursuit of Excellence, the work starts first thing in the morning.

In the parking lot outside Marshall High School, the MHS marching band was running through portions of its 2018 show. Besides getting their usual feedback from directors and coaches, students were also getting some additional coaching from clinicians.

Clinician Brandon Wickham spoke to a group of woodwind players about their choreography and movement during one portion of the show.

“You’ve got to commit,” Wickham said, demonstrating marching a few steps. Confident movement was an important part of visual performance, he said.

Clinics like the one Marshall was attending Saturday morning were a key part of the Pursuit of Excellence marching band competition. MHS students said it brought new perspectives to their performance.

Marching band members Emily Harvey and Logan Legatt said it was good to get different feedback from the clinicians.

“They’re fun to work with, and they give you different points to work on,” Legatt said.

As first-year marching band students, Harvey and Legatt said they were excited to be performing at Pursuit, although it was going to be a long day.

Marching bands from Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa participated in Pursuit of Excellence on Saturday. A total of 19 bands competed in four different categories depending on band size. While MHS wasn’t formally in the running for awards at Pursuit, the Tiger marching band gave a judged exhibition performance.

By the end of Saturday, Rosemount High School had received top honors as the Pursuit of Excellence sweepstakes winner. Hastings High School placed first in the gold class, West Lyon High School of Inwood, Iowa, placed first in the crimson class, Roosevelt High School of Sioux Falls, S.D., placed first in the navy class, and Lincoln High School of Sioux Falls, S.D., placed first in the ivory class.

“With the bands every year, it gets scary good,” MHS marching band director Wayne Ivers said of the quality of competition at Pursuit. This year’s lineup was another example of how good the bands could get, he said.

There was also plenty of good to say about both the event and the weather — Saturday’s clear skies were a big improvement over the “monsoon” that delayed competition in 2017, organizers said.

The feedback from judges, both during the performance and in clinics is a big part of what makes Pursuit of Excellence a good experience, students said.

Working with students outside of a competitive environment was one of the fun things about Pursuit for judges and clinicians, too. Wickham said one of the good things about the clinics was getting the opportunity to actually work on skills with students, instead of being limited to giving a single critique from competition.

“It gives you a chance to dig in more,” he said.

“It’s what teaching is,” said judge and clinician Neil Anderson. If students could come away from Pursuit with a little bit of additional knowledge, it was worth it, he said.

PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE RESULTS:

Gold class

1st place, outstanding brass, outstanding woodwinds, outstanding color guard, outstanding battery percussion, outstanding concert percussion, outstanding musical performance, outstanding general effect, outstanding visual performance: Hastings High School

2nd place, outstanding commanders: Anoka High School

3rd place: Lennox High School, Lennox S.D.

4th place: Madison High School, Madison S.D.

5th place: Harrisburg High School, Harrisburg, S.D.

6th place: Bishop Heelan High School, Sioux City, Iowa

Crimson class

1st place, outstanding battery percussion, outstanding musical performance, outstanding concert percussion, outstanding visual performance, outstanding color guard: West Lyon High School, Inwood, Iowa

2nd place, outstanding woodwinds, outstanding general effect: Mitchell High School, Mitchell S.D.

3rd place, outstanding brass, outstanding commanders: Huron High School, Huron, S.D.

4th place: Sibley Ocheyedan High School, Sibley, Iowa

5th place: West Central High School, Hartford, S.D.

Navy class

1st place, outstanding brass, outstanding battery percussion, outstanding woodwinds, outstanding musical performance: Roosevelt High School, Sioux Falls, S.D.

2nd place, outstanding concert percussion, outstanding general effect: Irondale High School, New Brighton

3rd place, outstanding color guard, outstanding visual performance: Brandon Valley High School, Brandon, S.D.

4th place: Brookings High School, Brookings, S.D.

5th place, outstanding commanders: O’Gorman High School, Sioux Falls, S.D.

6th place: Central High School, Aberdeen, S.D.

Ivory class

1st place, outstanding general effect: Lincoln High School, Sioux Falls, S.D.

Sweepstakes winner, outstanding brass, outstanding woodwinds, outstanding battery percussion, outstanding concert percussion, outstanding color guard, outstanding commanders, outstanding musical performance, outstanding visual performance: Rosemount High School