Patriots take 3rd

INDIANAPOLIS — The Marching Patriots put together the performance they had dreamed of all summer long.

It just didn’t earn them the result for which they had hoped.

Jay County High School, which had been first or second at every contest this summer including the preliminaries earlier in the day, finished third Saturday evening behind Noblesville and Winchester at the Indiana State Fair Band Day competition.

“We truly, I thought, put our best performance out there tonight,” said JCHS band director Kelly Smeltzer. “I’m extremely proud of the kids.

“I want to congratulate Noblesville and Winchester on an excellent finish tonight.”

For the second straight year, the Marching Patriots’ third-place finish came with a school-record score. They posted 90.75 points, besting last year’s mark of 90.575.

Noblesville, undefeated in competitions this summer, pulled away from the pack during the finals to win its first state fair title since 1952 with 92.6 points. Defending state fair champion Winchester, which was just 0.075 points behind Jay County during the preliminaries, surged into second place in the evening for a score of 91.

Kokomo (88.4) and Anderson (88.15) rounded out the top five in a field of 49 bands.

The Marching Patriots gave a solid preliminary performance, but not as strong as they thought they were capable of hitting. Their music was not as sharp as it has been. Auxiliary members had difficulty fighting the wind. Marching forms weren’t completely clean.

As a result, the gap between they and Noblesville expanded from the 0.575 points it had been at the Drums at Winchester competition a week earlier.

The Millers, whose best finish in the previous decade was fourth place in 2015, made themselves the favorites by nearly sweeping the morning competition. They took caption awards for general effect, music performance, visual performance and percussion, only giving up auxiliary to Kokomo by a single point.

Jay County was 1.125 points back of Noblesville while Winchester, which was nearly three points behind the Marching Patriots at its home contest, sliced that gap to less than a tenth of a point.

After getting those preliminary results, Smeltzer, standing on the back of an equipment truck, asked his group if they could give more when they took the track again in the evening. The answer was a resounding “yes.”

“We’ve got a better show in us,” he said. “We have to march better. We’ve got to execute better on technique. It’s coming down to the minor details … That’s what they’re looking at at this point.”

The Marching Patriots took a quick break to get some dinner and then returned to prepare for their final performance. They were loose and in good spirits as they stretched and warmed up. They seemed more focused on each other than on the Millers in front of them or the Force behind them.

On the track at 9:28 p.m., with crickets chirping away on the sound effects and Jay County band members kneeling as they waited for the show to begin, Smeltzer looked up at Alex Huey atop his ladder.

“You feel like you’re good?” he asked.

The answer was in the affirmative.

“All right, have fun buddy,” Smeltzer said.

Huey, and the Marching Patriots, did.

From the opening flute solo, through the windy first section, the moonlit second and the jazzy third, to the final crescendo, they felt they performed at the level they had been striving for all summer.

“This evening’s performance was amazing,” said senior drum major Emma Morgan. “Just getting to watch everybody finally lock in … At the last set, I saw people leaning into it. People were hitting, watching the majors, getting in time, really bringing out the loud moments. It was just amazing.”

At the final note, the Jay County fans in the grandstand exploded. Percussion director Mitch Snyder’s arms shot into the air. Smeltzer was unable to contain his excitement, the momentum of his fist pumps carrying him onto the track.

As the Marching Patriots marched off, emotion overflowed.

“I was just blown away by the reaction afterwards,” said Huey. “All the parents were crying. All the kids were crying. I was crying. It was just amazing all around.

“The excitement that you could feel from the band … just being here in that moment, that’s what you’ll remember. That’s what you’ll take with you the rest of your life.”

While there was some disappointment later when they learned they had slipped to third place for the finals, the result marked the Marching Patriots’ a top-three finish for the second year in a row. The last time Jay County posted top-three efforts in consecutive years was 2003 and 2004 — both third.

All day long, Smeltzer had complimented his students on how hard they had worked this summer. He encouraged the Marching Patriots to let that effort carry them in the finals and let the numbers fall where they may.

Gathered east of the stage on the grandstand track after the awards ceremony late Saturday evening, he reiterated that thought.

“I have never had a group in my career of 31 years like this. You ought to be proud,” he told them. “A lot of people were rooting for you, and they still are, and they still will. …

“I’m proud of you guys. I love you guys.”