BAND ADDS TO COLLECTION
By Rex Hickey, Sr.

The Campbell County High School Band is experiencing a big problem.
The problem is where to put the spate of awards that they have collected over the past two weekends in the huge collection of trophies and plaques that now cover several shelves across a wall in the CCHS band room.
Last weekend, the band competed at the First Annual Music in the Mountains festival in neighboring Claiborne County. The band received at least six superior awards that included the band (3), drum corps, drum major and color guard.
Drum major Brian Adkins, a senior, was named the top drum major in the band's class and Beth Wade earned the Jason Buchanan Memorial Award as the festival's best soloist.
Buchanan was a standout bandsman for the Claiborne County High School band in the 90s and had earned a reputation as a musician, composer, and writer prior to his untimely death. He had planned to make a career out of his musical talents and was studying to become a band director.
This past weekend, the band made their annual trip to the Alcoa Band Festival where last year they were less than satisfied with their performance and the judge's ratings. Taking the field with thier honor and award winning reputation at stake, the band wowed the judges and crowd alike with their performance of "Grease 2006" which again earned the band Superior ratings from all 3 band judges.
Brian Adkins was again named the top drum major in the band's category (moving up to AA class), the drum line was selected as the the third best among the lines, the color guard was named second best guard, and the evening was topped off as they were named second best band in their class in close voting among Class AA bands earning them a shot at the title of Grand Champion which was eventually awarded to the highly decorated Roane County marching band.
This was the last competition for the band's seniors who reflected on their careers in the CCHS band positively.
Although they stated that they will miss competing, many of the seniors have already made plans to continue their musical careers at the college level.
Several CCHS band alumni over the past thirty years have performed with marching and pep bands at the University of Tennessee, Cumberland College, Carson Newman, and Lincoln Memorial University.

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