Wildcats Pride wins Pleasant Hope competition

By Kyle Troutman [email protected]

For 12 hours each week, the Cassville High School band is putting in work.

The efforts paid off on Saturday at the Pleasant Hope Pirate Power Classic, where the Wildcats earned four total awards: first place in Class 3, best drum major, best drumline and battle of the bands (spirit award).

The competition on Saturday was one of four Cassville is in this year, and it’s the first year in close to a decade the band has competed in parade competitions.

“Most years, we’ve only competed in field show competitions,” said Micah Boise, Cassville band director. “We had two parade competitions, and now we have two field show competitions left, Ozarko at MSU and Ozark Mountain Music Festival at Reeds Spring.”

Saturday’s win was not the first for Cassville this season, as the Wildcat Pride also took first place and outstanding music awards home from the Marionville AppleFest parade competition.

Boise said there is one major factor in the band’s success this fall — hard work.

“No doubt, the students have committed to the idea of ‘hard work,’ and now they have been able to see that it pays off,” he said. “That’s kind of been our mantra for this year: work hard.”

That work has been most evident in the practice schedule, which has grown longer as the season wears on.

“Every morning, we meet at 7 a.m. and work until 9 a.m,” Boise said. “We had Thursday evening practices from 6-7:30 p.m., but the students wanted to work harder, so we extended Thursday evenings to 6-8 p.m.”

The band has also returned to pre-COVID numbers in participation, but Boise said big numbers do not always make the best band.

“It’s always impressive to see a big band, but more numbers often means more room for errors,” he said. “I’d rather have a small group of completely dedicated members than a massive group with students who aren’t that committed. We have grown significantly since our COVID year and have returned to our expected numbers.”

Cassville is not done competing this year, with two more field show competitions still on the horizon. The band will also make multiple community appearances.

“We will be at the Chili Cook Off this year,” Boise said. “We haven’t been able to attend the past few years because one of our competitions is always the same weekend as the Chili Cook off, but this year it isn’t. We will most likely be in the Cassville Christmas parade, and that will finally be the end of our season.”

People can follow the band’s season and accomplishments on Facebook in the groups “Cassville Wildcat Band Boosters” or “Cassville Bands.”