The Pride of the Oil Patch Roughneck Band advanced to the State UIL Contest on December 14th at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The band learned three movements for the UIL State Marching contest. The whole performance was broken into three parts. The songs they performed alongside the marching included an original composition by Luke McMillan, who also arranged the entire show, the second song was “Stairway to Heaven” rearranged to be performed by the band, and the final song was “Russian Christmas Music.”
On December 14th, the day of competition, the band woke up at 4:00am to prepare for their 8:15am performance in the Alamodome. The Pride of the Oil Patch played second out of eighteen total bands that day. Due to Covid, there was only one performance, instead of pre-lims then finals as in previous years. The band went back to the Alamodome in the afternoon for the trophy presentation. They received a result of sixth place and got a finalist trophy, then returned home safely later that evening.
According to band director Justin Mauldin, this year was the 25th time the Roughneck Band has qualified for State in its history, and the 20th consecutive trip. They have qualified for the Finals in 23 of those appearances, including 2020, even though Covid limited bands to just one Finals performance. Congratulations! What an incredible feat to continue this rich tradition in such an unprecedented time.