Yoe Band just steps away from state marching contest

Update: Saturday's contests have been postponed. The Yoe Band will will be informed when the event is rescheduled.

Editor's note: This weekend's weather forecast of heavy rain throughout Central Texas may impact the UIL marching contests scheduled Saturday. Updates will be posted.

After receiving straight one’s at this past week’s regional marching contest, the C.H. Yoe High School marching band is now set to compete at the area round of competition.

This year’s area competition will take place at Belton High School, with the Yoe High band marching at 4:30 p.m Saturday.
Many supporters showed up to watch the band compete at regional’s this past week, and they were not disappointed, as the band passed their first test with flying colors.
“I always ask the band to give me their best performance up to that point, and I thought that the band did exactly that on Tuesday at UMHB,” said band director Craig George. “It’s easy for our students to look ahead at the upcoming performances and overlook the importance of the UIL Region level, so I’m really pleased with their effort on Tuesday.”
Cameron was one of 12 bands to receive a one at the event.
The area round of competition will feature those 12 bands plus 14 other bands from across central and west Texas, which will complete the field of 26. Five of these bands will advance to the state marching contest in San Antonio.
The band has a strong show, but they know that staying focused over these next few days could make the difference in their results.
“Right now, the best thing we are doing is holding each other accountable for all of our actions on the field,” said George. “Let it be sound, feet, arrivals, or drill awareness, the students are beginning to be in control of their surroundings. When the students truly start to take ownership of the show and begin to help each other, that is when the success of our program begins to shine. We have to work more on balancing our sound a lot more and sustaining our long chords better at the end of movements.”
Though the regional round provides excitement, this area round of competition gives the bands a better idea of where they stand against the competition.

“This contest differs from other contests in that you are ranked,” said George. “At the Region level (and the UMHB invitational) you are given a score of 1-5, 1 being the best. At the Area level, you are given a “total number score” and then ranked in order.”
Competition in Belton will begin early on in the morning, with Troy being the first band set to perform at 10 a.m. The initial round of competition will take place all the way up until 5:30 p.m. Out of the 26 bands, 10 will advance to the finals competition, which will be announced at 6. Those ten final bands will perform again beginning at 7:30 up until 9:45. The performance order for the finals will not be announced until after the preliminary competition is complete. The final five, which will advance to state in San Antonio, will be announced at approximately 10:15 p.m.
If the band ends up being one of the final top five, they will advance to the state competition in San Antonio for the third straight time. The state marching contest takes place on Nov. 2 at the Alamo Dome.
The entire community of Cameron is encouraged to attend to support the Yoe band. The Cameron Herald will be providing updates via our social media accounts throughout the event.