Passionate percussionists

Building something powerful takes time.

That’s true of an ensemble achieving its peak performance, a piece of music hitting its crescendo or a wave climbing to its crest.

All three are part of what the Patriots have accomplished this year.

Jay County High School’s indoor percussion ensemble will compete in the Indiana Percussion Association state finals for the second consecutive year Saturday when it performs its show — “Wave After Wave” — at Indiana State University’s Hulman Center.

The group is scheduled to perform in the Scholastic A Marching Class (PSA) at 12:51 p.m. It will put on another preview performance at 8:30 p.m. Friday at JCHS.

It took until last season, Jay County’s sixth competing in Indiana Percussion Association’s winter circuit, to qualify for the state finals. It is back this year thanks in large part to the members’ dedication and focus, said director Mitchell Snyder.

“We have quite a sense of camaraderie and family in this group,” he said. “They just know how to rehearse. They know what’s expected. … It’s all business. …

“It’s a full, united 29-member group that when you watch it feels like one person. That’s something that we’ve been building on for quite some time, and each year it gets stronger and stronger.”

“Each year every kid continues to grow in their own way,” added Sydney Barber, a senior snare drummer who also painted the panels that serve as a backdrop for the show. “It really helps us, because we may not be the strongest players in the state but our ambition keeps us going. And each kid that comes in gets more and more passionate about what they do. I think that’s a big building block for how far this group has come in the past two years.”

Jay County’s show this year is designed to take the audience on a musical journey, using the ocean as a metaphor for life’s struggles.

The opening movement is full of frustration about the little annoyances of everyday life. The music starts slowly before becoming more and more frenzied.

That emotion hits an angry climax in the second movement, which represents the catastrophe in life that can make someone feel like she can’t go one.

“Everything is crashing down on you like a big wave,” said Barber.

But as the second movement ends, the rest of the group fights to help the struggling soul. That leads into the third movement, which takes on an uplifting tone.

“It shows that no matter what you go through in life, you can still make it and there are still people there for you to help you through your dark times,” Barber said.

The show as it’s been performed thus far, though, has not quite been complete. The JCHS group spent Friday night’s practice working on the new conclusion.

“It will help finish the story,” said Snyder. “This is kind of the touching ending …”

Jay County has been on a path of consistent improvement with the exception of one blip this season.

After scoring 68.5 points for a seventh-place finish in its season-opening competition at New Palestine in early February, JCHS placed in the top four in each of its next four competitions. Its score grew to 76.3 March 4 at Greenfield-Central before slipping back to 73.75 seven days later at Warsaw.

But last week, with a trip to the state finals on the line, the group soared to 80.71 points. That was good for a 10th-place finish at the state preliminaries, from which the top 14 schools advanced to this weekend’s competition at ISU.

“Our class is super competitive this year. These are all top scoring in the nation in the Winter Guard International circuit,” said Snyder, mentioning Zionsville, Beech Grove, Greenwood and Carroll. “We have a lot of respect for those groups. To even be within a few points of them is a good thing.”

In its first trip to the state finals last season, JCHS finished ninth.

Snyder has some ideas in his head about what he’d like his group to achieve this year, but he doesn’t share those with the group. For them, he wants Saturday to be about the joy of performing together for the final time.

It’s a philosophy his group has embraced.

“I think it’s fantastic that we made it to state two years in a row because we hadn’t even been close to state in the previous years. Ultimately, I don’t even care about what place we get. I’m proud of us for making state overall,” said Barber. “I really just want us to have fun with it and be proud of ourselves knowing that we made it and we’re up there with the best groups in the state. No matter what happens, we should be proud of the season …

“We reached our ultimate goal, which is to touch the audience with what the show means.”