A Contender? Maybe!

Tomorrow we leave for St. Petersburg, Florida to compete in the Bands of America Regional Championship in at Tropicana Field. The last time I took the band to a BOA event we really didn't have a chance to make finals. It was my first year at Swansea and things did not exactly go as planned but today I found that something did work out there. The booster club President knew just how things should on Saturday because we had done it all at Atlanta two years ago. This trip is different. Many bands go to Florida just for a field trip. Not so on this trip, we are going to compete. Will we make finals? I don't know. The line up is strong. Maybe the strongest in a long, long time. Several past regional champions will be there. Somebody told me on the phone today that just having the nerve to go to that shoot out was a pretty big credit to the band. So will we make finals? I still don't know but I do know we will be a contender. This leads me back to one of my favorite quotes. It sure does seem fitting for this weekend. Who knows we could just figure out a lot things this weekend. Maybe not just how far we have come but also how far we can go!

"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."