The Fossil Ridge Marching Band competed in the Colorado Bandmasters Association Regional competition on Wednesday, October 17. Fossil placed second in the 5A Band category with a score of 81.50, while Legacy High School placed first with a score of 83.05. As a result,  they automatically qualify for 5A State Semifinals and received a bye for quarterfinals, because their performance at Regionals was ranked so well that it can save time for the judges. The band was scored by the categories of music, visuals, effects, and performance. Their main competitor, Legacy High School, has been a constant opponent with Fossil for the past few years.

Ryan Cleverly, a junior, said, “I was pleased with how we did at Regionals, even though it was a little disappointing getting second. We gave it our all and we had a solid performance.” Mrs. Munoz, the Marching Band director, added, “It’s really hard to beat another band. You can’t just have a trumpet duel, it’s really subjective. What we want our kids to do is beat their own score everytime and beat their last performance. They have successfully done that, every performance has gotten better and the scores have gone up every time.” Munoz said, “The competitiveness, it’s really hard to not want to beat another band. We’ve been in second place for many years here and it’s hard for that not to play into it, but we have good bands in Colorado. You can’t control what other bands do like who designs their show or who writes their music or how many rehearsals they have.” The band looks into what the judges comment on their routine to strive for excellence and change what is not quite working or work to fix what they aren’t able to take out.

Sabercats will compete at the CBA State Championships Semifinals on Saturday, November 3. The competition will be held at the Falcon Stadium at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. 5A Finalist Bands will be announced the same day at 4 p.m. along with t Semifinalists Awards, so watch out for those results Sabercats.