Dubois County Marching Bands end season with strong finishes

Saturday was a good day for Marching Bands from Dubois County in the ISSMA State Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Jasper Marching Wildcats — whose class performed earlier in the day — finished fourth in Class B behind three strong performances by perennial favorites; Greenwood, who took first place, followed by Concord of Elkhart and Northview of Brazil.

Jasper Band Director James Goodhue acknowledged the competition among the top bands. “They are all really good,” he said. “We don’t have any complaints. We had a good show.”

The surprise of the day, however, came with another first place finish by the Forest Park Marching Rangers.

Chad Gayso’s squad was the last to perform in Class D and that may have helped put an indelible mark on the judges minds before the awards were handed out.

Gayso wasn’t so sure about his band performing last though. “At first, when I saw that, I was a little bit nervous about it,” he said. “Being defending State Champions and getting to close out the state finals too was kind of a storybook ending.”

Forest Park beat back strong performances by first runner up, Springs Valley, third place winner Paoli, and fourth place winner Lewis Cass.

Outgoing President of the ISSMA, Tim Johnston, told how special the finals are for the bands. “This is the icing on the cake for the season,” he said. “These performances are all about the kids and the opportunity they have to perform in this venue.”

It was a great season and our congratulations go out to all of the area bands that performed on Saturday in Indianapolis.