Band continues winning to the end

The Aurora Houn’ Dawg Marching Band had its final competition of the season on October 20. Band members found themselves up against some old rivals and new ones from the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, as well as bands from Oklahoma.
As usual, the band ended the marching season on a high note, according to Kelley Martinez, media coordinator for Friends of the Band.
“Ozarko Invitational Marching Festival has a tradition of being a tough competition with several very outstanding bands. Ozarko is so large, with 29 bands competing, that it is broken into four preliminary divisions and two finals divisions,” said Martinez.
Aurora took to the field in its preliminary division performing its 2012 routine, “Last Man Standing,” and taking on seven other bands.
Preliminary results brought Aurora caption awards with outstanding drum major and outstanding visuals and a second-place finish. From there, the band went to the finals round.
As finals ended, the Houns once again won outstanding drum major and outstanding color guard captions. Finals placement for the band was second-place overall, topping 11 other bands.
Ozarko also had another award for Aurora; this one went to band booster/parents. Every year, contest officials present a “dinner bell” award. This award is given to the band which has the best menu, or lunch, that the parents put together for the students. This year’s theme was “Taste of Asia.”
Band-booster mother Hannah Epperson spearheaded the cooking and decorating. The menu consisted of homemade egg rolls, noodles, shish kabobs and fried rice. After going through the serving line, band members sat at tables with red tablecloths surrounded by decorations of dragons, lanterns and pandas.
Fortunately, the dinner-bell judges arrived before band members, as the food was warm and delicious and went fast as the kids got back in line for seconds and even thirds, said Martinez.
Rob Springer serves as director of the band. He is assisted by Aaron Shockley, assistant director; Michelle Parbury, color guard coordinator; and Jeremy Meyer, percussion coordinator.