Harrison Marchers Capture Top Honors at Lafayette Classic

The Harrison Marching Band earned the title of overall grand champions at the Lafayette Marching Classic invitation event held Oct. 30 in Fayetteville, GA. A total of 14 bands from Georgia competed in the event.

The Hoyas opened the competitive event with an all-superiors-rated performance during preliminaries, capturing first place in Class 3-A, and earning honors for best color guard. Returning for the evening’s finals event, Harrison captured honors for best musical performance, best visual presentation, and best overall general effect, and earning the overall grand championship.

For 46 senior band members, the Lafayette Marching Classic was their final competitive performance after previously earning recognition and top honors at various Bands of America regional championships and numerous invitational events.

The Hoyas performed their 2021 competition show, Somebody to Love, featuring guard costumes, colorful graphics and music hearkening back to the 1970 and 80s. Taking its name from the 1976 Queen song, Somebody to Love also includes Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar, Time After Time by Cindi Lauper and other music.

Also performing at the Lafayette Marching Classic were marching bands from Buford, Campbell, Denmark, East Coweta, George Walton, Grayson, Johnson, Kell and Hillgrove, Midtown, Ola, Riverwood, Union Grove and Woodland high schools.

Harrison Marching Band closes out is 2021 fall schedule with a marching performance at Universal Studios in Orlando on Friday, Nov. 5. The band will parade through Universal Studios theme park at 10 am, while playing popular movie themes.

The Hoya Band is under the direction of Josh Ray, band director at Harrison High School, and assistant director Johnathan Grogan. 2021 drum majors are Ainsley Collier and Kate Kennedy. Maggie Frost and Abbie Newton are first lieutenants, and Tristan Sanford is second lieutenant.

For more information about the Harrison Bands program, visit www.harrisonbands.org