Central band 4th at MCBA contest; Milford takes 11th

Three lakes area high school marching bands competed in this year’s Michigan Competing Band Association’s (MCBA) Championship Contest at Ford Field in Detroit, with two finishing in the top 10.

The Walled Lake Central High School marching band finished fourth in the MCBA Flight 1 championship, while the West Bloomfield High School marching band finished in ninth-place. The Huron Valley Milford High School marching band placed 11th in the Flight 2 MCBA Championship.

The event, held each November, is one of the major competitions for bands, drawing bands throughout the state.

Walled Lake Central Band Director David Rogers said the competitive show is more complex than the performance spectators are used to seeing at Central’s football games. The band, which garnered first-place finishes at the MCBA Flight 1 Championship in 2010 and 2011, consists of 170 students, including 100 wind instrument players, four drum majors, 32 percussionists, and 34 members of the color guard.

West Bloomfield High School’s marching band has placed in the top five at the state finals in each of the previous six years, and won the state championship in 2008. The band consists of about 90 students, including 30 woodwind instrument players, 26 brass instrument players, 12 drumline members, 10 front ensemble members, 11 color guard members, and two drum majors.

The Huron Valley Milford High School marching band has consistently placed in the state finals at the MCBA championships, with 13 appearances at the Bands of America/Music for All Grand Nationals, a competition held each year in Indianapolis, Ind.

This year, the band welcomed a new director, Katy Sare.

The band consists of 50 students, including 11 in the color guard, nine in the drumline, three drum majors and 27 wind instrument musicians.