29 from Ohio
16 from Indiana
10 from Kentucky
6 from Texas
5 from Michigan
3 from Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia
2 from Florida, Georgia, Iowa, West Virginia
1 from Arkansas, California, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin
The second school might surprise you a bit. I think I’ve mentioned them in a previous post, so if you were paying attention, this school might sound familiar. You see, Jenison has a fan club named Lakota West. I don’t know if you heard them, but they did a “Jenison Chant” when we were announced during the Semi-Finals awards program. Several years ago, they saw one of our shows and loved the creativity and quality of our “little school”. I say little because Lakota is an AAAA school. Ever since that show, they have followed us closely and with excited anticipation.
Another really enjoyable moment was witnessing, for the very first time in BOA history, a football team come to the competition and cheer for and encourage their school’s marching band. They all wore red, sat in the first few rows along the 50-yard line, and cheered exuberantly. It was fun to watch and easy to see how much it meant to the band members.
There are probably more stories to tell and probably additional connections to other bands that I am not aware of. Whether you agree with everything BOA does or not, they have successfully set up an annual event that allows all of us to enjoy music and movement created by the hard work of schools from all over our nation. This year, we saw twenty states represented. Despite our differences, we still play music the same, march the same, and can enjoy the resulting performances the same.