Mizzou Competition

The Fort Zumwalt South Marching Bulldogs had their final performance of the year in Columbia, Missouri at Mizzou on Saturday, November 3, 2012.

This was the second time I rode with Bob to a competition. I started out the morning meeting him at the school at 7:30 in the morning. This was my last chance to get all the info I could on what will be expected of me next year when I take over. I have some big shoes to fill. Bob will be sorely missed!

Everything went smoothly loading up the truck. The tree we repaired seemed to be holding up well and everything was as heavy as I remembered it from the week before. We had a bunch of parents show up and help out. It’s always great to see so many parents show up to support their kids.

It was smooth sailing on the drive to Mizzou. The only thing coming close to excitement was the dashboard of the truck looked like it was on the losing end of a temper tantrum. Bob guessed someone thought the fuse panel was a glove box and decided to pursuade it to open by breaking the plastic clips holding it in place. And of course that panel was the only thing holding up the piece of the dash right above it so I had a lap full of dash on our drive. Not to sorry though. After we arrived at Mizzou and unloaded I performed an emergency redneck repair. Duct tape holds the world together. I’m sure of it.

I tried to be Bob’s shadow most of the trip. I hope I wasn’t too annoying. Bob, first thing, went to check on the stadium to see what we were allowed and what prep we could do beforehand. Because the parking lot for the stadium was about eight miles from the stadium so we took the props (trees and tarps) to an area behind the stadium where we would be entering. That ended up being a little exciting because the entire stadium was built in a hole in the ground. This meant the gator with Bob and I pulling the trailer with the props and about six parents had to go down a pretty steep incline. At one point the trailer’s weight actually started pushing the gator to the side.

We made it safe and sound and got the props unloaded. I stuck with the pit again this week. When it was time to take the band to the stadium the stadium personnel had us take a different route into the stadium. The first hill we went down was steep and curved. This hill was just straight down and now we had the trailer loaded with all the band equipment. We ended up walking next to the trailer to try and lighten the load. Bob told me afterwards that he had the breaks floored the entire time. Any additional weight would have only added speed to our downhill trek.

The band once again had a great performance. We did have a few technical issues. One tree fell over, a tarp blew up and the sound system cut out a little. I’m not sure how much that affected our overall score, but in the end we did not score high enough to make finals. We did have some confusion though when one of the finalists was called out as The Marching Bulldogs from Francis Howell. It was not us. He just messed up. Mr. Tucker opted to not hang out for finals so we loaded everything up and headed for home.

The kids ate their Subway dinner at the school when we arrived and we loaded the props in the trailer for storage until a decision was made on what to do with them.

I have to say I really enjoyed this season. Last season I was nothing more than a spectator. This season I decided to get involved and I’m really glad I did. I had so much fun and got to meet some really great people. I can’t wait for next year!