Third for 4our

The summer had been all about a specific number — 4our.
Four decades of Jay County High School marching bands competing at the Indiana State Fair.
Four uniforms donned by the Marching Patriots over the years.
Four notes upon which their show was built.
But on Saturday night, the performance of 4our was too good to be relegated to its matching ordinal.
Jay County instead earned its best finish in a decade — third — at the Indiana State Fair Band Day competition with the highest score in the program’s history.
“It’s unbelievable, knowing that all of our hard work has paid off,” said sophomore drum major Kaitlyn Dow. “It’s just amazing. We’ve improved so much over the season. … It’s just great to represent Jay County like this and finish the season off like this.”
The Marching Patriots’ 90.575 points trailed only runner-up Kokomo (90.8) and champion Winchester (92.625), which successfully defended its 2015 title and won for the fifth time in the last six years. It marked the Winchester’s sixth band day crown, tying for the record with Anderson, Muncie Southside and Franklin Central.
Jay County’s score surpassed its previous record of 89.8, which was set during the 2006 contest in which it finished second. It had not placed higher than fifth since then.
“It was truly an exciting feeling to have that, especially being the 40th year. It couldn’t have hit at a better time,” said JCHS band director Kelly Smeltzer, whose group jumped into the top three after placing seventh a year ago. “It’s just been such a fun season.
“I think the kids, once again they knew that this was it, this was the night. They were going to lay it all on the track tonight. I told them they have to be happy once they leave that track. No regrets. And I’m extremely proud and I hope we’ve represented the last 40 years of Jay County very well.”
In addition to the third-place trophy, the Marching Patriots were honored for 40 consecutive years competing in band day at the state fair, with former director Dave Humbert and former staffers Bev Arnold and Lori Mark joining Smeltzer on stage. The streak is the third-longest behind Anderson and Richmond, both of which took part in their 46th straight competition Saturday. The tradition includes two championships — 1992 and 2001 — 10 runner-up efforts and 28 appearances in the top five.
After winning the caption award for percussion last season, Jay County went home empty-handed Saturday, though it was close in the music performance category in which it was just three tenths of a point behind Winchester during the preliminaries. It closed that gap even more in the finals, trailing the champions by just 0.075 points.
One of the focuses for the Marching Patriots during their break between the preliminaries and finals was dynamics.
“I think they … played with some sensitivity, listening to balance issues,” said Smeltzer. “And I thought they hit that real well tonight.”
In addition to posting the No. 2 score for music performance in the finals, Jay County was also third for general effect and fourth for visual performance. During the preliminaries they were sixth for percussion and seventh for auxiliary.
The third-place finish followed the pattern of the entire summer, in which the Marching Patriots had been chasing both Winchester and Kokomo. They were 1.725 points behind Kokomo just a week earlier at the Drums of Winchester competition and closed that gap all the way to 0.225 points Saturday night.
The reason for the year’s success, Smeltzer, the drum majors and members of the woodwind, brass, percussion and color guard agreed, was mindset.
“I feel like it was the focus along with the staff pushing us harder this year,” said junior drum major Alex Huey. “They pushed for greatness, not good enough.”
“Everyone had the same goal and we worked toward the same goal,” added Julie Schubert of the color guard. “We were 100 percent committed all the time.”
The emotion of the moment was evident as the Marching Patriots made their way off the track following their finals performance, with reactions ranging from wide smiles to uncontrollable tears.
“This has been the best season of my life,” senior percussionist John Paquette said. “It’s sad because this is my last day in band, period, but it was worth it, all of it.”
“It’s five years gone by, and it’s just over in five, six minutes,” said senior Nick Hayden, who shared a tearful hug with fellow trumpet player Candler Hedges following the final performance. “It’s hard realizing that I don’t have any more run throughs, anything left. But we definitely left it all out on the field. I couldn’t have asked for a better last show to go out on.”