Spectacular hosts

Patriot Edition counted advancing to the finals at a competition in 2018 was a great accomplishment.

The co-ed show choir made a jump last season, earning the grand champion honor twice. It did so again Saturday, joining all-female counterpart Just Treble in winning grand champion honors at the season-opening Bellmont Winter Spectacular.

Now this weekend, Jay County High School is seeking to draw more attention, both locally and throughout the state, to its growing program as it plays host to a show choir competition for the first time.

“We think it’s a really good thing PR-wise for Jay County High School and the choral program to bring people into our community and our school and show our place off, and the kind of caliber of kids we have,” said JCHS show choir director Susan Denney. “It’s just a very good promotion of who we stand for in this county.”

The inaugural Jay County Show Choir Spectacular kicks off at 9 a.m. Saturday in the high school auditorium and runs all day — 14-plus hours — with the final awards scheduled for 11 p.m.

The competition is set up with one group performing every half hour — each group has 25 minutes in order to move all of its equipment into place, perform and then move everything off — though Jay County has built in some extra time early in the day to accommodate any unforeseen hiccups as a first-time host. Choirs compete in one of three divisions — unisex, small mixed and large mixed — with the winner of each advancing to the finals. Three wild cards — the other choirs with the highest scores regardless of division — will also advance. (In addition to the group competition in the auditorium, the band room will play host to a solo competition judged by Jay County’s Linda Rodden.)

The field includes show choirs mostly from northeast and east-central Indiana, including Huntington North, Bellmont, Northrop, Carroll, Bishop Luers, New Haven and New Castle. Crestview, from nearby Convoy, Ohio, is on the list as well.

But it also features a couple of long-distance competitors. The Saugatuck show choir will travel from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan while Walsh Jesuit Harmony Gold will make the 230-mile drive from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, which is situated between Cleveland and Akron.

As hosts of the competition, it’s the job of Denney, her students and the long list of volunteers involved, to take care of their guests.

That starts Friday night when Patriot Edition and Just Treble members will decorate the “home rooms” featuring the show theme and colors of the choirs that will be competing. Jay County choir members will arrive at JCHS at 6 a.m. Saturday.

“They spend the day with (the competing choirs),” said Denney. “They get them where they need to go. They get their equipment where it needs to go. … They go through rules with everybody. …”

And on and on the lists of duties goes.

“And then they’re just there to answer questions and just to have a good time with them and get to know them,” Denney added.

Jay County’s desire to take on the challenge of hosting a show choir competition is two-fold, at least.

The choirs thought it would be a good way to showcase a program on the rise. Patriot Edition was the grand champion in competitions at Bellmont and Carroll last season, and advanced to the Indiana State School Music Association state finals, and that success continued last weekend with Patriot Edition and Just Treble earning grand champion honors at Bellmont.

And, it’s an opportunity to bring in funds to support the program. Denney noted that there is about $20,000 invested in this year’s contest shows in the form of costumes, choreography, arrangements, props, backdrops, copyrights and a variety of other costs.

And the more you advance, the bigger your dreams get, the more lofty the cost is to support those dreams,” said Denney, adding that Jay County is looking at new risers as its next big expense.

The groups currently come up with most of that money from working at races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and will continue to do so. But hosting can be a major boost — Denney said some competitions bring in as much as $100,000 — to a program’s finances.

“And we know we’re not at that point, but we wanted to do something to get it started,” she added.

As hosts, Jay County’s choirs will not compete. Instead, they will perform in exhibition to open and close the finals, receiving comments from the judges that will be used to help them improve their shows for the rest of the competition season. Just Treble is scheduled to take the stage at 6:30 p.m., with Patriot Edition closing the evening at 10:30 p.m.

Part of the excitement is that the host school tends to draw support from all of the other groups involved.

“All of the schools are going to be cheering us on, more than they’ve ever done before,” said JCHS junior McKenzie Ring. “And it’s going to be so awesome because we’re going to get pumped up.”

“It’s going to be so much different because they are coming to support us and they want to support us,” added senior Mary Hartman. “And they’re actually getting to meet us throughout the entire day. So this entire auditorium will be packed with people who want to see our (show) and people who want to give us support. It’s going to be really awesome to feel that energy.”

As exciting as that is, being the host really does come down to hospitality.

Denney named three things that she wants Jay County’s first competition to be:

•Fair.

•Organized.

•The most kind, respectful environment they’ve ever been to.

“The first thing that we want is we want people to leave saying, ‘OK, they are the best competition we’ve every been to,’” said JCHS senior Joey Littler. “We just want them to leave having a great time. We don’t want them to feel like they’re anywhere but home.”