Searcy hosted the regional band competition last week. Bands from all over came to state to march. Three judges gave them scores based on marching, flag line, drum majors and percussion.

“High school bands within our region can compete to march. It’s not necessarily competing against each other, it’s just competing to see who can get good ratings. One being the highest and five being the lowest,” said senior Jordan Ladyman.

Nine other bands, including Bald Knob, Cabot, Lonoke, Beebe, McCory, West Memphis,  Carlisle, Riverview and the University of Central Arkansas.

Searcy has had a difficult time preparing for marching competitions because of weather conditions.

“One problem that we’ve had this year is rains hit pretty much every Friday and when rain hits we can’t march and normally every year we can get a good amount of performances in, but this year we haven’t been able to,” said Ladyman. “With extra practices, we’ve been able to still come out. I think we can still score as well as we normally do.”

The band members expected great scores based on how they preformed in previous competitions.

“We usually get first division and then every now and then we’ll get like a second division, but those are just from individual judges. We usually just get all ones since we’re pretty awesome,” said junior Jack Kittler.

At the end of the night, Searcy received first division ratings.

You can view full performances of the different bands here: Region Band Competition