USBands Awards McLean Highlander Band Virginia State Champions

By Tracy Strelser

The fabulous McLean Highlander Marching Band earned the 2017-18 USBands Virginia State Championship. USBands is the largest sanctioning body for scholastic music competitions in the United States. McLean won 1st Place, as well as Best Music, Best Visual, and Best General Effect.

Director of Bands, Chris Weise congratulated the students on his team, stating, “Congratulations, on a wonderful performance yesterday and an exciting end to our competitive season! I think you guys ended with the strongest run you’ve ever had, and I couldn’t be more pleased and proud.”

This is not the first time McLean’s Band has won this prestigious competition. In fact, Weise went on to state, “You’ve now won the state award two years in a row. Hopefully you have learned how much you guys can accomplish through hard work, respect, and support for each other. That is the point of marching band.”

For those in the community that want to see the performance for themselves, the band plays during half-time at the McLean Homecoming game this Friday, October, 27th at McLean High school. The Highlanders will be playing against visitors Washington and Lee high school.

A full run-down of McLean’s results from USBands includes the following:

1. McLean had the highest music scores out of all bands by a nice margin.

2. McLean had the second highest visual score for the day.

3. McLean had the highest general effect score for the day.

The band would like to thank the McLean community for its massive support of the band program.