Percussion and Color Guard Both Take First at Band Competition

's award-winning Indoor Percussion and Color Guard ensembles both got off to great starts Saturday, taking home firsts in their respective .

Twevle units -- eight percussion and four color guards -- competed in Saturday's competition, which included schools from both north and central New Jersey.

The ensembles will next compete on Saturday, March 3 at the Winter Guard International (WGI) show at Trumbull High School in Connecticut.

The WGI is the top regional, national and international competition circuit for indoor guard and percussion, and in the past has included groups from Japan, Holland and Canada.

Over the past decade, the Fair Lawn High School Marching Band, under the direction of Paul Kafer, has earned 10 consecutive national Top 13 finishes along with six straight invitations to the U.S. National Marching Band Championships. 

This past fall, .

Many of Fair Lawn's indoor percussion members, whose winter show is called, "It's About Time," are carryovers from the fall marching band, which was awarded Best Percussion for the second straight year at the U.S. Scholastic Band Association (USSBA) Nationals Competition in November.