On October 20th, 2018 the Point Pleasant Boro High School Panther Competition Marching Band brought home the title of Tournament of Bands State Champions after performing their show “Red” at Toms River East High School. Beginning in July, the PPBHS Marching Band has been dedicated to continuously improving the show. All of the band’s hard work came to fruition in the moment that The Panthers heard their name called for the first-place title.

At the competition, the PPBHS Marching Band came in first place out of seven other bands in the division, as well as received the captions for best visual effects and best music. Once the town heard about the band’s success, firetrucks and police cars arrived to escort the band home from the competition and celebrate their success. The TOB Competition was a huge accomplishment for the PPBHS Marching Band, as this year was the first year performing in a TOB competition, let alone securing a first-place win.

This year, the show includes four songs chosen to represent all of the powerful emotions that are represented by the color red. The band would not be able to pull off this difficult show without the help of the Band Director, Mr. Visco, Assistant Band Director, Ms. Meier, and Colorguard Director, Mr. Ferrie, along with the drum majors and color guard captains this year: Nick Christen Adams, Ellie Hulit, Nathan Hansen, Ashling McNally, Caitlin Wilson, Rachel Simoes, and Kathryn Doblovsky. The band creates a world of war, anger, fear, love, and triumph, all by emphasizing the large and powerful moments in the music and using colorful visual effects to put the audience in a scarlet trance.

Overall the PPBHS Marching Band had an extremely successful season, mostly coming out on top for all of the eight competitions they performed and finishing their last competition with a score of 90.063. The band’s great success is no surprise to many in the PPBHS community. Before every competition, the band is encouraged by Mr. Visco to “make this the best performance of [their] lives, thus far!”

After having such a successful competition season, who knows what the band has planned for next year’s show?