CHS marching band notches victory

With a sea of colors and a meshing of music and march, the Clovis High marching band claimed its first Tournament of Bands championship.

The band claimed the title Saturday at New Mexico State University against 31 bands from New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.

“I think it was really surprising,” senior drum major Jeremy Urban said. “We thought we were going to do well, but we weren’t sure if we would have potential to get first.”

The school had never claimed the sweepstakes prize in the competition, Head Band Director Bill Allred said, but was the highest-scoring New Mexico band and fifth overall six years ago.

The band performed a selection called, “KeeVa,” Allred said. The selection was a combination of music from James Cameron’s “Avatar” and music from Cirque du Soleil.

Fans of Wildcat football games should be familiar. The band has been putting on the show at halftime of games at Leon Williams Stadium.

“We broke the show into six parts,” Allred said. “In the first ballgame, we played Part 1, which was one minute and 30 seconds. The second ballgame, we played Part 1 and Part 2. In short, it’s just more time on the show. Some parts were easier than others and some were more involved than others. “

Allred said the band practices for an hour and 40 minutes each morning, and has rehearsal from 4:15 to 6:30 p.m. There have also been two weekend rehearsals.

At the tournament, the band received five awards during the preliminary competition —