By Sarah Richardson
The Greenbrier East High School Spartan Marching Band spent last weekend rushing across the state as they attended both the West Virginia Marching Band Invitational (WVMBI) Championship, the finale in the Governor’s Cup Series, and the Marshall University Tri-State Marching Championships on the same day.
GEHS Band Director Jim Allder said that the band traveled to Charleston last Saturday for the WVMBI competition at 1:15 p.m., and had to immediately leave after their performance to head to Huntington for the Tri-State competition in the Joan C. Edwards Stadium at Marshall at 5:30 p.m.
This year, the band’s show is “SPARTA!,” a homage to the GEHS mascot, with the 70 band members donning Spartan gear and face paint, and the show featuring Spartan-style fighting and battle formations amid the musical numbers.
Their first competition of the day, the WVMBI, was the 13th annual WVMBI Championship and featured 36 high school bands from 28 counties in WV meeting at the University of Charleston Stadium on Laidley Field. In 2017 the West Virginia State Legislature proclaimed this invitational “The Official State Marching Band Championship of West Virginia.” Bands were divided into four categories based on size, with the Spartan Marching Band competing in Class B, the second largest class.
The invitational also featured the finals for the 4th annual Governor’s Cup. The Governor’s Cup Series consisted of ten preliminary competitions with bands collecting points by competing in the local competitions along with the WVMBI Championship and Governor’s Cup Series finale to be eligible to win the overall Governor’s Cup.
“We are pleased to have such a good turnout of high school marching bands from across the Mountain State attending this year’s invitational,” West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History Cabinet Secretary Randall Reid-Smith said. “For the last several years, the department has partnered with Save The Music Foundation and generous donors to provide musical instruments to middle schools throughout the state. Now, these students are moving into high school where they are helping to grow their marching bands. This invitational is a way for us to highlight that growing interest in music.”
The invitational includes competition judging for music, music effect, general effect, marching, percussion, drum major, color guard, majorettes and twirlers. A Miss Majorette competition is also held at the event, along with a drumline competition.
At the end of the invitational, the GEHS Spartan Marching Band was named the WV Class B Governor’s Cup State Champions, along with the color guard earning first place in their division in the Governor’s Cup finals. After securing the first place win in their size category, they also placed second runner-up out of all class sizes in the entire state in the Governor’s Cup Point Standings.
“We had to perform early, and out of class, to allow us to make our second competition that day,” explained Allder. “When you have groups perform out of class, my feeling is that you are putting yourself at a disadvantage because when you go on early the judges have to score conservatively in case there’s somebody else that comes along that’s way better, they have to have room in the scoring range to do that. So we did put ourselves as a little bit of a disadvantage by doing that.” In order to make it to Huntington, they had to leave before knowing if they placed at all, and had to miss the other shows in their category.
“We had a phenomenal performance in Charleston, the best of the year I’d say, and it was only topped by our performance in Huntington that evening,” said Allder. “We were able to do even better.”
The second competition of the day, the Tri-State Marching Championships at Marshall, featured 25 bands from West Virginia, one from Kentucky, and one from Ohio.
“We had just a tremendous performance there, and swept all of the major classifications including music performance, visual performance, and effects,” explained Allder.
In their category, they secured the AA Class Champion title, and were named the Marshall University Tri-State West Virginia Grand Champions. The color guard placed third at this competition, and the drum line scored second.
However, when it comes to band, Allder said it’s not all about the awards. “I don’t like to put a whole lot of emphasis on the competitions,” he said. “Let’s say you’re playing basketball, if you shoot a shot you get points, it’s very clear-cut, but with band, choir, or theatre, it’s an artistic endeavor and there’s a lot more subjectivity with judges, so I don’t get too tied up in all that stuff. But, at the same time, when the kids are able to achieve at that high level and get recognized for it, I want to make sure they are celebrated it the community.”
Allder explained that the band has had an undefeated season this year, as they’ve earned first in their class in every competition they have competed in.
With this season’s competitions now behind them, Allder said they are getting ready to start some major fundraising campaigns to help with costs associated with being invited to the annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Parade event in Hawaii in Dec. 2025. Allder said that this is the third time the band has ever been invited to represent West Virginia at the ceremony, with the first invite being in 2001, and the second in 2011. They were able to attend the 2001 ceremony after extensive fundraising and contributions from the community, and were unable to attend in 2011.
“We’ve done some minor fundraising so far, but will be ramping it up with some bigger fundraising events coming up,” said Allder.
The total cost for the band to attend is $250,000, roughly double of the cost to attend in 2001. This estimate is based on current airfare, the size of the band, and other factors that come out to $3,100 per student.
“We know it’s a lot,” he said, “but we have applied for several substantial grants that will hopefully lower those costs by a good amount.” He anticipates getting a response on the grant statuses before the end of this year. He says the kids are also out and “working hard” to help earn their way, and they are optimistic about getting funding.
For right now, as other fundraisers are getting fleshed out, they are accepting donations via PayPal at “GEHSMusicBoosters”, Cash App at “$gehsbandboosters”, Venmo at “gehsbandboosters”, and GoFundMe at gofund.me/06ae1014.