More marching band news: Kudos to Marple Newtown

It turns out Delco is chock full of big-time high school marching bands.

The past few days I have been noting the accomplishments of the Sun Valley Marching Band, which took a state crown at the Cavalcade of Bands in Hershey over the weekend.

Reader - and proud grandmother! - Bette-Jo Readinger wanted to remind me that Marple Newtown has a spectacular marching band as well. And they also won a cavalcade last weekend.

I'm learning more about this notion of the marching band competitions, thanks to readers like Readinger and longtime Chichester band promoter Marci Malinowski.

As Bette Jo pointed out, marching band no longer means "march down the field and play." Today it's all about the "shows."

Marple-Newtown is in the Yankee Open Division, which held its championships Sunday afternoon in Downingtown. That apparently is a different competition from the one Sun Valley competed in out in Hershey. According to Readinger, Marple Newtown's marching band, 85 members strong, won the competition with a score of 96.65, an historic high. That makes the second straight year they've won.

And she believes their front performer deserves special kudos for performing with a broken rib and bruised ribs from an injury in the last official practice.

One of the things I did a few years ago was link from our site to a blog to allow band advocates to post information about their bands and the competitions. It's called Marching Band 411. You can check it out here. In the meantime, sweet music from Marple Newtown. Kudos to all involved.

Comments