Dartmouth HS Marching Band wins fourth consecutive national title

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DARTMOUTH, Mass. (WLNE) – The Dartmouth High School marching band and color guard is now adding to their collection of trophies on display at the school, after winning their division at the USBands national competition in New Jersey.

“It was definitely their best show of the year,” said Band Director Bill Kingsland.

In addition to winning their division four years in a row, they also tied a record for the highest score ever awarded. The students competed against hundreds of others on the daunting field at MetLife stadium.

“Massive space, everyone’s looking at you, big jumbo-tron. It’s pretty scary,” said drum major Luke Higgins.

The students put in about 20 hours a week, on top of school work, to make sure everything went perfectly.

“It comes down to the trust of trusting that everyone else around you worked as hard as you did and that everyone else is going to perform at the same standard you hold yourself to,” said saxophonist Jonathan Bacdayan.

The win was special for the seniors in the program, but also for their director, who plans to retire this season after 20 years. He says it was never about the amount of wins.

“If you’re constantly chasing a number, that’s who you become,” said Kingsland “If you’re trying to do it to be really good, and have your students and your program really good, that’s where the rewards start to come in. And then if you win you win.”

As for what the students say is their secret?

“That drive to succeed, the drive to build each other up, and win as a team is what really helps us succeed,” said saxophonist Josh Moniz.

The students and their director say it was even more challenging this year to get in enough practice, not being able to perform their full program at the football games because of the Triple E threat.

Despite that, they still brought back another trophy.