Courtesy photo – The Berthoud High School march band took second place at state.

The Berthoud High School marching band earned second place in Class 2A at the Colorado Bandmasters Association state championship held in Grand Junction on Monday.

“To my knowledge, this is the highest finish for the BHS Marching Band in the school’s history.” reported band director, Sean Hedding. “I’m super proud of how hard all of the students worked all season and that their hard work paid off,” said a clearly excited Hedding, “I’m also proud that they were able to recover from a rough performance in semi-finals to have their best run of the year in finals.”

The competition, featuring bands from across the state, took place in Grand Junction over last weekend, with Berthoud marching their winning performance on Monday, Halloween Day. A memorable treat for every member of the band and their families.  A charter school, The Classical Academy in Colorado Springs took first place in the Class. That school requires every student to enroll in a music or art class every semester. The Academy band has about 140 members. Berthoud’s band has 32, which makes their achievement even more impressive.

“At the end of the day all you can hope for is that the kids have their best performance on the last day. The smiles on the kids’ faces walking off the field after their performance knowing that they had their best performance makes all the hard work and long hours worth it.” said Hedding.

The Loveland High School marching band won first place in their division at the same competition. Many students who live in Berthoud are members of the Loveland band.

As director Hedding emphasized earlier, the cost of maintaining a competitive marching band is steep, so the band works hard at fundraising all year long. Donations to support the band can be made directly to the band through this website: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/parent-boosters-usa-inc.