While most Trigg County high school students who aren’t athletes get to relax for another week, the members of the marching band are hard at work.

Band camp started on July 24 and the students have been working hard to try to achieve the high standards they set last fall. when At the Kentucky Music Educators Association’s statewide marching competition in October, they placed fourth in their class.

There are four classes of marching bands in Kentucky. AAAA is the largest and A is the smallest. The class rankings used to be done purely by band size, but the rules were changed last year and rankings are now decided by school size.

Trigg County used to be a AAA band, but they were one of the smaller ones in the state, which put them at a disadvantage. Under the new rules, they are classified as AA. Andrew Mroch, the band’s director, said this helped them immensely because of the more level playing field.

Mroch said he hoped to stay competitive with Trigg’s chief rival, Caldwell County. The bands that get to perform in the state finals are the top four in the preliminary competition. Mroch said Caldwell County missed out on finals by a tenth of a point.

“They’re not real happy with us right now,” he said.

Senior Bailey Bryant is this year’s drum major. Placing in finals last year was an incredible experience, she said.

“It was probably the funnest time ever,” she said. “I could’ve done the show a thousand more times.”

This is Mroch’s third year as Trigg County’s band director. He was assistant director for five years before that, and he said this year’s band is doing as well if not better than in years past. He said it’s been a bit of challenge instructing them because there are so many freshmen, but that they’re catching on to the routine pretty well.

For the rest of this story, read this week's Cadiz Record.