Marching Greyhounds Win Bands of America Grand National Championship

One hundred outstanding high school marching bands from 20 states competed November 9-12 at Lucas Oil Stadium in the nation’s most prominent marching band championship, 'Music for All’s Bands of America Grand National Championships', presented by Yamaha.

After the field of 100 bands narrowed to 36 for Saturday’s Semi-Finals, only the top 13 bands advanced to compete in Saturday evenings Finals competition.

Withstanding a highly competitive season, Carmel High School Marching Greyhounds claimed the coveted Grand National Champion Eagle Trophy. The Avon Marching Black and Gold earned a second place finish and the captions of Outstanding Musical Performance and Outstanding Visual Performance. Due to a virtual tie of points, Carmel finished with the win because they earned the higher ranked caption of Outstanding General Effect. In the event of a tie, rank is determined based on they higher General Effect score.

“I’m incredibly proud of our student’s accomplishments this season both competitively and with the performance that they presented at Grand National Finals.” Chris Kreke, Carmel High School Associate Director of Bands said. "They truly proved that continuing to push towards perfection and excellence all the way to the very end will pay off!” “The Marching Greyhounds have done an outstanding job of setting goals and working exceptionally hard towards those goals. At no point during this season did I feel like the group let down or wasn’t working toward the end goal of perfecting their performance.” “Marching Band at Carmel High School is a very special family that includes not only the students but the staff members, school administrators, and parent volunteers who all help us accomplish incredible things year in and year out. Throughout this year, we experienced this family atmosphere time and time again. I’m so proud of everyone’s efforts!”

Grand Nationals is the largest national high school marching band championship and culminates a season of 21 Bands of America Championships held throughout the country this fall.

“Bands of America Championships are a program of Music for All, supporting our mission to create, provide and expand positively life-changing experiences through music for all,” according to Eric L. Martin, President and CEO of Music for All. “Active experiences in music and the arts are integral to providing students with a well-rounded education. The thousands of students who will perform at this championship showcase the results that come from the dedication, teamwork and mastery required and fostered through music and arts education.”

The Carmel Marching Greyhounds last won the Grand National Championships in 2012.

Take a look at more pictures from the winning competition.