For the eighth time in the past 19 years, the Columbia High School Marching Wildcats are state champions, claiming the Class 4A title in Pearl late Saturday night. They placed first in overall effect, visual performance and musical performance, as well as second in percussion, for their show, “Dem Bones.”
Band Director Leslie Fortenberry said winning state is a phenomenal feeling because she gets to witness the pure joy of her band members.
“Everything goes towards the kids. I’m just the happiest for them,” she said. “Seeing the looks on the kids’ faces is what makes it special for me.”
“It feels pretty great,” senior snare drummer Luke Miciello said. “We put a lot of work in, and it always feels great when your hard work pays off.”
“I’m just so glad that it’s finally the day that I can say I’m a state champion,” senior Color Guard member Sandra Thomas said. “I was just completely flooded with emotions (Saturday) because I knew that we deserved it as a collective whole. In that moment, I was just so happy and so proud of every single person in the band.”
For senior Paxton Waters (trumpet), it didn’t hit him until Sunday morning that the Marching Wildcats really won state. Even into Monday morning, it still felt surreal to him.
The Columbia High School Marching Wildcats brought home their eighth state title since 2004 Saturday night, and the band members wore their gold medals all around school on Monday. Some of the leaders of the band include, from left, Paxton Waters, Ashley Green, Hayden Verucchi, Briyonna Newsom and Kaylee Stringer. | Photos by Joshua Campbell
“We kind of didn’t expect it at the beginning, some of us had some doubts, but we worked really hard and focused and it happened,” he said.
Fellow senior trumpet Grayson Bounds said Monday morning that it still had not set in.
“For my whole high school career, I’ve been dreaming about it. In the moment, I honestly just knew it happened,” she said. “These kids, this band family, we’ve worked so hard for this all year. We’ve been pushing them and pushing them, and they’re really good marchers. I just knew it was going to happen, but it still does not compare to the feeling of having our names announced, everyone jumping around, the feeling of gold — it’s just incredible.”
Columbia’s performance Saturday was pushed back on four separate occasions because of the heavy rains, but that didn’t deter the band in the slightest.
“They went out there and did their performance, and it was by far the best one they did all year. And that’s what they needed to do,” Fortenberry said. “When we walked off, I knew that was going to be tough for someone to beat.”
The Marching Wildcats still had to wait several hours before getting to the results. When the judges got to the last three categories — general effect, music performance and visual performance — and Columbia placed top-3 in each, Fortenberry felt it was in their hands.
“Hearing our names called last again, that’s the best feeling in the world,” she said.
Assistant Director Bill Thompson and Band Director Leslie Fortenberry show off the Marching Wildcats’ state championship trophy. While Fortenberry is undoubtedly more excited for the band members and her second state title as the lead band director, she is also excited that she is “two centimeters taller” than the trophy.
Miciello said the band did a great job focusing only on what it could control — its performance — and not worrying about the delays or the judges’ opinions.
When the show was in its infancy stages last December, Fortenberry was hesitant about the show’s theme but decided to go for it anyway because she believed if they were able to pull it off, “Dem Bones” would be worthy of a state title.
“It kept progressing and kept progressing, and when we finally got our music in May, I thought, ‘Yeah, this could be a championship show.’ The kids found out about it and were really excited about it. With all the skeletons, everyone was excited about that,” she explained.
Thomas believed in the show for its unique nature and creativity, and that it allowed her to dance with an unusual partner. “I really liked dancing with the skeletons,” Thomas said. “That’s so unique, and you don’t see that a lot. It was just really cool, and the visuals were really cool.”
As fun as it was to perform with skeletons, there was nothing easy about learning choreography with a lifeless companion, especially when that partner kept falling apart. Thomas said Assistant Director Bill Thompson, who is also the percussion instructor, had to hold the skeletons together with tape, glue and zip ties to keep them functional and sturdy.
Bounds enjoyed the music of the show more than anything because it had a deeper message to it, but it could also be fun.
“The whole thing was just fun. It was a lot of fun being surrounded by people you care about, people you spent a year getting closer to and trying to improve together in a show that has a lot of movement in it,” she said. “It was very fun to do, and I’m very appreciative I got to experience it.”
For those who travel throughout Mississippi and get the opportunity to watch bands perform, whether it be at football games, competitions or even parades, it’s evident that there aren’t too many bands that take risks with their shows and concepts. Columbia is the polar opposite as it always aims to go big and take chances. Fortenberry and company sat down and had long conversations with Mark Waymire, who helps the Marching Wildcats with their show concepts, leading to the conception of “Dem Bones.”
“We’re not strangers to doing unique, dark-type stuff, but compared to all the other (bands) at state, (our show) was pretty different,” Waters said.
Waters described the show as the band members, who were dressed like doctors, getting manipulated by grim reapers (Color Guard), which was illustrated by the band swaying and starting to lose control. By the end of the show, the doctors are under complete control of the grim reapers and die. As they lie down in their death, their bodies on the ground spell out “Dem Bones” as the show wraps.
“The way I see it is what kills us is some sort of disease or illness, and it slowly starts to control us. By the end of it, we’re coughing and on the ground and we’re done,” he said. “Understanding wise, it was a bit of a broad spectrum, but once you did understand it, it clicked.”
Thomas said there were discouraging times throughout the year because Stone High School was sweeping competitions throughout the year. In the end, though, Columbia’s entire performance stole the show.
By winning state titles in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2018 and now 2022, every four-year band member beginning in 2004 has been a state champion. That statement will remain true through 2025, when the current freshmen will be seniors.
Whether it’s 10, 20 or 50 years down the road, Miciello said he will always remember winning state and that it’s something that can never be taken from the band.
The state champions got to wear their gold medals to school on Monday, a tradition of the historic band. Bounds said wearing those medals around campus is indicative of being able to reap the rewards of hard work and it shows that band is just as important as any other sport or activity in high school.
“Even though it’s technically not a sport, we worked for this championship, and we’re going to show it off a little bit,” she said.
Miciello plans to attend Mississippi State to get an engineering degree. Bounds also has plans to attend Mississippi State, where she will perform in the band, to major in English or have a double major in English and horticulture. While Thomas doesn’t know which college she will attend, she wants to attend a four-year university out of state. Waters is going to Pearl River Community College to become a lineman and will be in the band.
