The Panther Regiment wrapped up its season with the state competition on October 22nd. Their performance capped off a great season for the marching band with their 75.6 point eighth place placement being their highest in their recent trips to state. Band Director William Nicholas was pleased with the Panther Regiment’s final performance. “I felt it was the best performance for the entire group.”  

Senior drumline member Sam Berensztein felt this was also a fitting culmination to their season. “I think it was our best performance in a competition,” said Berenzstein. 

After the practicing and competitions throughout the season, the final competitions in band are prelims and state. All teams qualify for their selective prelims but in order to advance to state, bands must get a score of 60 or above. At prelims, The Panther Regiment got a 70.2. “Making it to state is a pretty big deal but we have been able to make it more in recent years,” said Berensztein. 

In the last couple of years, South has gone to more competitions with the judges who judge in prelims and state. In these competitions, they can get feedback from the judges and get experience playing in a competition setting. Each judge grades the performance and the combination of their scores results in the total score. “[We made] it [to state] last year and this year,” said Nicholas, “I hope to make it a more common occurrence.” 

On the day of state, 22 bands from across Indiana came to Franklin Central High School for the competition. “We had a rehearsal beforehand. It [felt] like any other competition setup wise,” said Berensztein. When they got out there it went well but there were still some nerves. “There is an adrenaline you get from performing in front of a large audience. We were pretty nervous at state,” said Berensztein.

After their performance they got to watch other bands perform and wait for their score and place to be revealed. When they learned of their rank, it felt great. “Going into it I was questioning our score but I was confident we would get seventh or eighth,” said Berensztein, “I think we had the potential to get higher but I think we got properly ranked.” 

This was certainly an improvement from their 13th place last year. This year they knew what to expect from the competition and they worked well to improve from last year. “I was happy with my final performance,” said Berensztein. A great performance at state ended off a great band season.