Marching Dragons Compete at Mo West Monday, October 31, 2011 By Sophomore Nathan Meister The Cameron Dragons' Marching Band marched in the Missouri Western Homecoming Parade. They received first place in their district. - Jeri Patti Advertising Last weekend the Cameron Dragon Marching Band went to Missouri Western State University to compete in the annual Missouri Western Marching Band Competition. After practicing for weeks, the Cameron band placed first in the 3A division at the event. This carried on an 11 year tradition. The parade is held every year, and bands from all around come and compete. Although the competition was fierce, the Dragons pulled out a victory and even got second place out of all the bands. The band started off with the drum line cadence. Once at the judges, they showed off their skills with the song ‘Pagliacci,’ originally an Italian opera that was converted to a rock song and arranged for marching. The whole band did well at the competition and performed up to par with the competitors. Assistant Band Director Blake Duren said, “Every year they give a grand champion award which is the band with the most points overall. This year Platte County received the award. We did, however, beat Belton High School who was previously the grand champion for the last couple years. There were 11 other schools, which is on the low side, because Missouri Western moved the date and because Northwest’s homecoming  was on the same day.“ Junior Percussionist Hunter William Yeager-Johnson said, “What separates us from other bands is that we were also the only band to be 7 people wide.”  Mr Durren agreed. “Eery band has its own way of doing the corner turn, and ours is what separates us,” said Mr. Duren. “The things that make us different from other bands is our kids and the methods we use for marching. It’s the combination of those things that make us who we are. It’s been our recipe for success and hopefully we can get the grand champion award next year,” said Band Director Shane Jones. Mr. Duren said there were some additional hurdles this year. “This year the parade route was longer and it went by more local businesses. There was some confusion about the route because the cops didn't know which streets to block off. We were prepared as much as we could have been. One other problem that went along with the parade route was that it was more narrow compared to other years.” Mr. Jones agreed the width of the road affected the Dragons in a big way. “This was a challenge because the road was narrower than the band formation was,” said Band Director Shane Jones. “One of our corner turns was uphill. This would have been nice to know in order to help us prepare. I was a little concerned as we were getting ready for the performance. I didn’t think we had the best practices the week before, but when we got down there and performed that day I think we did a pretty good job.” Blake Duren said, “The reason we perform at MO-West is because we mostly do perform at football games. This is something that is solely for us. We can put our work into it and be judged by other music educators to see where we stand.” It appears the Cameron Marching Band stands to grow and get better every year. They are always looking to the future.

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