The Lake Wales Highlander Band is on a roll, and not just a drum roll.
At MPA, Music Performance Assessment, last week, the Highlanders earned straight superior marks in all categories. Here was their performance:
Band Director Meagan Delacerda is over the moon about the group’s performance at this particular event.
“This is not a band competition,”she explains. “In a way it’s like a state test for bands. There are several different scores you can get but superior is the highest.”
Lake Wales has not recieved full superiors since 2009. In the 1960s and 70s the had straight superiors ever year which is when MPA first started.
“But MPA has changed drastically over the last 3 to 4 decades,” says Delacerda. “It definitely got harder for outside reasons to get superiors and Lake Wales slowly started not receiving them anymore.
“When I first came on to the Lake Wales High staff, one of their main goals was to get straight superiors again, and I told them I wasn’t sure if I could because so many other great band directors had tried years before and so I told them I would come in and create an environment that would make the kids proud of where they come from, proud to be apart of the Highlander Band and proud to be musicians and that’s all I could promise them at the time.
“This year our goal was state; it was never superiors. Some band directors put so much pressure on kids to get perfect scores and sometimes that’s not how it works, so I just asked them to be better everyday and continue on striving for excellence.
During the warm-up, Dela Cerda says she told the kids that they weren’t there to get superior marks, but they were there to make a mark, and to have fun.
‘We are here to show off what Lake Wales is about,” she says she told students prior to their performance at Dennison Stadium in Winter Haven on Nov. 9. “I want you to have fun. I want you to give them everything you got and use this as a practice for state.”
Both Delacerda and her assistant, Allison Irizarry, thought they would get a mixture of excellences and superiors; excellence is the 2nd highest possible score.
“When we went up to the press box at Denison Stadium to see our scores, we could not believe what we were looking at,” Delacerda says. “Straight superiors clear across the board…The amount of love for the show we were receiving from band directors of other schools, parents, band kids from other schools, retired band directors and so on was incredible. It was a great night but our job is not done. This Saturday is state and this is a completely different level than MPA. This is the real goal all along. If we make it to the top 5, we will have the opportunity to play in the finals for the state champs. This year our goal was not to go and win as this is our first year and we are still a very very young band but if we pull out a win that would be an A plus situation.”
Delacerda is grateful for what the students have achieved, and for the band staff who contribute countless hours of dedication.
“I would like to thank the band staff for all the help this year. Everyone in the community is thanking me but I could not do my job without them. My assistant band director, Allison Irizarry, my brass instructor, Alex Irizarry, my front ensemble instructor, Katie Konger, my drumline instructor, Justin Butler and of course all the people who have came and helped in anyway. I could not do this alone. So thank you to them.
“And I have my husband to thank, Michael Delacerda. Literally could not do this without him. He is the one that does all the sound for the show.”
The Lake Wales Highlanders state competition is scheduled for November 16 at Jupiter High School.
