By Jim Thomas

DELTA -- A new era of winning the Western Slope Regional Bands Marching Championship has begun under MCHS band director Rodney Ritthaler.

Montezuma-Cortez High School band members played and marched nearly flawlessly Thursday afternoon, Oct. 14, to win the Class 4A field-show competition. Mancos High School, competing in Class 2A, received some penalty points which cost it a title.

Former MCHS band director Gary Hall won 18 of the past 20 titles and won three state titles during his tenure. Hall resigned last summer to take a similar position at Loveland High School. But now Ritthaler, who was named late last summer to replace, has now set his own precedence by guiding the Panthers to his first title.

The Panthers performed music from "The Land of the Long White Cloud," a New Zealand piece. They played the music nearly perfectly. Not a sour note was heard. The Panthers played all the pieces well and they marched with precision.

Beth Peck and Daniel Puls both did a nice job as drum majors. The soloists -- Sean Leavey (trumpet), Sam Cropp and Brittany Johnson (French horn) -- also played well and could be easily heard. Many individuals in the crowd gave the band a standing ovation and they cheered widely.

"I thought we played a lot better than the week before at Grand Junction," Ritthaler said after the performance. "They executed the things we worked on. They had a lot more emotion in it. I thought everything went well."

The 92-piece MCHS band, which came in second to Grand Junction Central only a week ago at the Colorado West Marching Band Festival, took home first place in percussion and received a citation for outstanding inspection. They finished second in auxiliary (flags) under the direction of Jessica Linde. In the parade competition, the Panthers came in second.

Ritthaler said the band worked out some of their deficiencies earlier in the week. They corrected some individual execution in marching and music.

The Panthers will polish their show and will perform at the annual State Class 4A Bandmasters Championship, set this Saturday, Oct. 23, at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

Things didn’t go quite as planned for the 70-member Blue Jay band. Oh, the music they performed -- 1940s swing -- was excellent. However, they had a few problems which ended up costing them the title. Before the band was officially called by the booth announcer, the two drum majors were already doing their salute. The guitar was set up away from the pit area. And finally, an overly proud parent was shooting pictures where he wasn’t supposed to be -- in the competition area -- and then he picked up a piece prop to move (immediately after the performance) which he wasn’t supposed to do. All of those were counted as penalty points against the Jays. As a result, Rangely captured the title.

"Those penalty points really hurt us," Janey Silver, Mancos band director, said after the show. "They performed very well and they nailed it."

They gave the old Glen Miller standard "In the Sing, Sing, Sing" was played with emotion. The color guard performance was excellent and the Jays’ whole program received a standing ovation from the audience. The show was a real crowd-pleaser.

"The kids did a very good job with the music. I thought they nailed it. I wasn’t sure what those two boys (dancers) were doing when they ran into each other. They must have been really jazzed. But other than that I thought it was a good show," she added.

Mancos was cited for outstanding inspection. The Jays also picked up a second in the parade competition.

In year’s past the Blue Jay Marching Band has had a week and half to get ready for State. But because of scheduling conflicts in the Denver area, the Colorado Bandmasters 1-2A State Championship will be held this Monday, Oct. 18, at Denver South High School Stadium.