Starr's Mill HS Band to Compete in Tournament of Champions

The high school musicians will be competing for various awards, including the prestigious Chancellor’s Award Trophy, a large glass traveling trophy that is presented to the grand champion band, and the North Carolina Roll of Honor, awarded to the highest scoring band from North Carolina. 

“Facilities, organization, adjudication and professionalism – the Tournament of Champions is first class all the way,” said Zack Pace, band director at White Knoll High School in Lexington, S.C., which will be competing in the event. 

The competition will consist of two sessions. Preliminaries will begin at 9 a.m. and continue through the day. After the preliminary competition, the three class champions and the next seven highest scoring bands will advance to the finals. The finals competition will begin at 7 p.m. 

Western’s Pride of the Mountains Marching Band will perform “On the Move” at 4 p.m. at the conclusion of the preliminary competition as well as at the conclusion of the finals at 9:30 p.m.   

Participating North Carolina bands (and towns where located) are Owen (Black Mountain), Brevard, Chase (Forest City), Orange County (Hillsborough), North Lincoln (Lincolnton), Ronald Reagan (Pfafftown), Eastern Randolph (Ramseur), Robbinsville, Smoky Mountain (Sylva), Wake Forest-Rolesville, Tuscola (Waynesville) and North Buncombe (Weaverville). 

Georgia high schools participating are Starr’s Mill (Fayetteville), Harrison (Kennesaw) and Campbell (Smyrna). 

South Carolina high schools participating are Clover, Dutch Fork (Irmo), White Knoll (Lexington), Pendleton, Union and Colleton County (Walterboro). 

 The Tennessee high school participating is Dobyns-Bennett (Kingsport). 

The Virginia high school participating is Bassett.  

Tickets are $8 for the preliminary competition.  Tickets for finals are $5 if purchased before 4 p.m. or $8 if purchased after 5 p.m.   

For more information, call (828) 227-2259 or click on http://prideofthemountains.wcu.edu. 

Western Carolina University is one of the 16 senior institutions of the University of North Carolina system. Western enrolls 9,055 students in undergraduate and graduate programs of study, and is located about 50 miles west of Asheville, N.C., near Great Smoky Mountains National Park.