Saturday, Oct. 1, The Pride of Cordell Marching Band traveled to Elgin, OK to compete in the Elgin Owls Southwest Showdown, a marching band contest for bands 2A through 6A. Cordell competed against 16 schools class 2A through 6A. The top 12 bands are selected from the preliminary round to move onto the finals. Cordell placed at 7th overall and received the following recognitions (outstanding awards are given to one band in each class): Outstanding Auxiliary/Color Guard, Outstanding Drumline, Outstanding Drum Major, High Music (given to highest music score in 2A), High Visual (given to the highest visual score in 2A), 7th place overall in prelim competition, 1st place in class 2A. The Pride of Cordell Marching Band performed the show again that evening at 7 p.m. and were awarded 11th place in finals which was a total score competition between all sized bands (no divisions).
Among the 16 schools competing were: Mangum, Alva, Luther, Lexington, Pauls Valley, Hilldale, Tecumseh, Cache, Chickasha, Woodward, Ardmore, Altus, Durant, Duncan, Lawton, and Norman North.
“Accomplished and proud truly do not even begin to explain how I feel. This is the third year I have been here and it is an entirely new band. The culture, the attitude, the sound, the overall feeling of being with these band kids is entirely different. And words can’t express how proud I am of their growth and their desire and hunger to improve. This has proven that the size of the school and band does not matter and all that matters is the quality. I feel nothing but pride, joy, and an ecstatic enthusiasm about our future here in Cordell,” stated Cordell Band Director Aaron Edge.