Congratulations to the Marching Patriots on a fantastic season.  The season ended this past Saturday at the VMBC Championship, with the Marching Patriots placing fourth in their class.  It was another great performance from the band!  While there was disappointment at not reaching the finals, everyone should be very proud of what this group of students has accomplished this year.  All the hours of work created a fantastic show! 
 
Thanks to all our seniors for your dedication to the program!  We will miss each of you next year.  We do expect that you will come visit next fall and encourage the next iteration of the Marching Patriots.
 
Thank you to Mr. LaPrade and all of the marching band staff for the endless hours you all have put into this group of students.  Your own talents and passion have shone through this fall and we all appreciate it very much.
 
To all the volunteers this year, THANK YOU so very much for everything you did.  From uniforms to pancakes, from picking up the food & drinks to serving that food & drinks and from carrying equipment to loading trucks, we supported this band in everything they did and needed.  I appreciate you all putting up with my endless requests for more hands to help - and I appreciate all those that showed up to help out.  We had a lot of new people helping this year - thanks for joining in the fun!  We will have things to do throughout the rest of the year as we continue to support the band this year.

This is the last of the regularly scheduled "weekly" updates, but there will be messages on occasion about fundraisers, auditions, and concerts.

Football note: The football team ended their regular season on Friday.  Their first playoff game is away at Riverbend.  So, we will not be hosting a playoff game.
 
End of Marching Band Season - the Marching Band Olympics
The students have one more afternoon "rehearsal" scheduled for this Monday, November 8, until 5:30pm.  This is the annual end of season tradition, with games and events for the students.  At the end, we'll have some ice cream treats for them while they watch the show one more time.
 
Calendar
Just a reminder of the upcoming events on the calendar.
November 11 Jazz Band Veterans Day Performance
November 17-19 – All State Jazz Event (selected Students) – Norfolk, VA
November 19 –Jazz Performance at Virginia Music Education Conference – Norfolk, VA
December 4 - All District Band Auditions (virtual)
December 12 - Holiday concert (3:30pm)
 
**Please note that the Holiday Jazz Band Dance originally scheduled for December 17 has been cancelled.
 
As always, the calendar can be found on the website at https://www.albemarleband.org/calendar.html#/
 
POINSETTIAS!
Our annual poinsettia sale is ongoing.  Be sure to check with your student for the order form information, or check out the website: https://tinyurl.com/AHSBandPoinsettias  Orders are due by Thursday, November 18!
 
Band Boosters Meeting
Next Boosters meeting is this Tuesday, November 9 at 7pm.  Everyone is invited so please join us.
 
Thanks again for a great Marching Patriots season!
Tim

Superior : of high quality : high or higher in quality
 
The Marching Patriots received a score of SUPERIOR this past Saturday at the State Assessment at Monticello.  Congratulations to the band on an outstanding performance.
 
Personally, I didn't need the State Assessment to tell me that our students are SUPERIOR.  Spend any length of time around this group and you can just tell the high quality of people that these students are.  Just watch their dedication to this show and you can tell the high quality that they hold themselves to for their show.  These students define superior.
 
But, that wasn't the end of the day for this crew of musicians and performers.  Next up was the Powhatan Fall Classic where our students received the following awards:
 
1st place music
1st place visual
1st place percussion
2nd place general effect
2nd place class AAAAA
 
The band placed 2nd overall in our division of 13 bands.  We missed out on the first place by 2 tenths of a point!  An outstanding performance by the band!  They received a lot of good feedback so they can prepare for the Championship event this coming weekend.  Great job Marching Patriots!
 
VMBC State Championship
Saturday, November 6 at Liberty University (Williams Stadium)
1971 University Blvd
Lynchburg, VA 24502
 
Here is the schedule:
6:45am – Arrive/Load Truck/Eat Bagels
7:45am – Depart AHS
9:15am – Arrive and unload
10:00am – Warm Up Time
11:00am – The Better to Hear You With
11:20am – Return to Truck/Pack Up
12:00pm – Watch the rest of our class
12:30pm – Depart for Park for Lunch/Senior Speeches
2:30pm – Return to stadium
3:00pm – Watch Class 4 and 5
5:30pm – Awards/Announcement of Finalists
6:00pm – Depart for Liberty University
7:00pm – First Finalist Band
10:30pm – Awards
11:15pm – Depart Liberty
12:30am – Arrive at AHS/Unload
12:45am – Dismissal
*** Note ***
If we don’t make finals we will return home at 5:30 and should be dismissed around 7:15pm.
 
Our schedule and a complete schedule of all the band performing can be found here: https://mcusercontent.com/2cd7a1be78c31262fb2a6e283/files/535d7c2f-5f82-19fc-b498-446d0843d295/Schedule_for_VMBC_State_Championships_2021.pdf
 
I've been asked several times about how the finalist portion is determined.  There are 12 bands selected from the 30 performing.  The winner of each class (there are 5 classes) advances.  From there, the top 7 performing bands advance (last time they split this with the top 4 from classes 1-3 and 3 from classes 4-5).  So, we need to win our class or be in the top 4 highest scores of the remaining bands to be a finalist.
 
Ticket information for VMBC Champs
Tickets can be purchased in advance of the event at: https://gofan.co/app/events/433311?schoolId=VA7532_1
 
Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students (K-12).  Children under 5 are free.  Tickets will be available at the gate by credit card.  Concessions will be available at the stadium.
 
Volunteers still needed
We are still needing volunteers to assist with the truck on Saturday.  There were a few people who told me this past weekend that they were going to help, but there are only 2 people who signed up.  Please sign up to help out!
 
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0d49acaf28a6f58-2021
 
Note: If you're able to help with things at AHS but are not going to Lynchburg, please let me know via email.  We're always appreciative of help, especially late at night!
 
Booster Volunteer Shout-out
I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for Carrie and Jay Eisenberg.  Their daughter, Lucy, is a senior, so they have reached the end of their marching band events. 
 
Carrie has been the food guru for the last several years, always making sure that the students are fed at marching band camp, dinners are there for football games, bagels are ready for competitions, and that we have food for any other special event I throw her way.  She has always made sure we have plenty of food and I know the students have appreciated it.  I certainly have relied on Carrie a lot and I will miss having her sage food advice (really, how many bagels will we need?).
 
Jay has been our lead truck driver and loader (amoung other things) the last few years, driving our equipment hundreds of miles around the state.  He has also spent a lot of time working with Penske to make sure we have the trucks needed to haul everything - and this year has been challenging with making sure we got what we needed.  Jay has been a constant help to me with making sure we have everything we need and a great resource of knowledge and information.
 
Please take a moment to thank these superior volunteers for their numerous hours of help over the last several years!
 
Next Booster meeting
Tuesday, November 9 at 7pm
 
See you all for Champs!
Tim