The Wando Marching Band lived up to and surpassed their own expectations and high standards by delivering an award-winning performance at the 2018 Bands of America Regionals in Gaffney, SC, on Saturday, Oct. 13.

The Warriors earned first place overall, and won the overall awards for Outstanding Music Performance and Outstanding Visual Performance during the finals portion of the day-long event with their show “By A Thread.”

This is the Wando Band’s first ever regional title.

Earlier in the day, Wando competed in the preliminaries with 23 other bands from around the Southeast region of the country. The Warriors swept the caption awards in Class 4A: Outstanding Visual, Outstanding Music, and Outstanding General Effect.

The Wando Marching Band advanced to finals where, in front of a primetime audience with thousands of spectators, they delivered one of the program’s best performances with a score of 86.55.

Second place went to Dobyns Bennett High School from Kingsport, TN, with a score of 86.1. This was Wando’s first appearance at Bands of America Carolina.

“Being able to have a great preliminary run after our electronics went out was amazing,” explained A.J. Johnston, one of Wando High School’s senior drum majors.

The Wando Band has faced many obstacles this year from Hurricane Florence taking away a week’s worth of rehearsals to Tropical Storm Michael stealing a day right before this competition. When the band stepped onto the field for preliminaries, the speaker system malfunctioned, and the band had to perform with no electronics for the entire show.

Lanie Radecke, Assistant Director of Bands at Wando, told the students they handled it beautifully. “That was my proudest moment as a director. No other band would have been able to handle marching the first 90 seconds of their show in dead silence, but they performed even better than we had rehearsed.”

The Warriors will now “march” their way to the Bands of America Regional in Powder Springs, Georgia, in two weeks. Their ultimate goal, however, is the Bands of America Grand National Championships in Indianapolis on Nov. 8-10.

You can catch the Warriors show at their community performance at the District 2 Stadium, located behind Wando High School, on Nov. 3 at 7:00 p.m. Please bring a donation of school supplies or wrapping paper for the Windwood Farm Home for Children.

The Bands of Wando are under the direction of Lambert, Lanie Radacke, and Jeff Handel. Michael Gray is the Program Coordinator for the Wando Marching Band.

The Bands of Wando is thankful for support from the community, the Charleston County School District, the Town of Mount Pleasant, its Harmony Sponsors, the Bands of Wando Foundation, parents and alumni.

For more information visit WandoBands.org.