Four performances, 12 trophies. . . in one day

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BRANSON MO NEWS: The Salem Marching Blue’s season of competitions is complete, but the band grabbed a treasure chest of trophies at the end of their voyage. The 65-member band, along with the directors and support staff, achieved something never done at Salem before as they performed their show “Pirates” at two separate festivals Oct. 14.Their conquest for the gold started with a morning performance at Southwest Missouri Regionals in Branson. After the Salem Marching Blue finished its first show of the day, it received a standing ovation as assistant drum major Nathaniel Alterauge exited the field chanting “Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.”“The band had good energy coming off the field after the first performance, and I just hoped that the energy would last all day,” Alterauge said. “It was a long day, but we kept the energy up.”

Immediately following that show, the band and its entourage of support trailers loaded up and headed to Ozark Mountain Marching Festival in Reeds Spring for the next competition. The kids took the field and again wowed the audience with their music and visuals.Shada Faith Malone, one of eight color guard members, talked about having the stamina to continue through the day.“You get on that field to perform, and you pull the energy you need from deep down inside of you,” she said. “You know that when performing, the band is giving it their all and that is what helps me to push through each show.”As they left the Reeds Spring field, band director David Schatz informed the group that they had taken first place in their class at Branson, as well as swept all the captions, including color guard, percussion, visual, general effect, winds and drum major, and would be performing at finals there. …