Web only: Arrows finish in the middle of a crowded class at Youth in Music


The Pipestone Area Marching Arrows finished fifth from among 10 bands at the Youth in Music Championships Oct. 14 at U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings.


The nine other bands were the most the Arrows have competed against in their class this season. Steve Olson, Pipestone Area Schools (PAS) band director, said he was pleased with the band’s fifth place finish against several larger metro area bands. He was also please that the Arrows outscored two bands — Farmington and Andover — that beat them when they last competed at the Rosemount Marching Festival in September.
“I think it went really well,” said Rachel Stiles, senior trombone player and low brass captain, who has a solo in the show. “We had a solid performance and it showed.”
As has been the case this season, the Arrows showed more strength in music categories than they did in visual categories of judging, taking first in Class A in music general effect and third in Class A in music performance.
“We’re really doing well musically,” Olson said.


As the band prepares for its final competition of the season, Olson said he will work in the visual aspect of the show, which has been less consistent. He said he plans to be down on the pavement among the band members during practice this week, rather than observing from up on a platform, to work on making the visual aspects of the show more uniform. He’ll also be focusing more attention than usual on the color guard and pit percussion sections to try to strengthen those areas.
Olson said he’s “incredibly proud” of the students and what they’ve accomplished this year and he hopes that they can keep their music scores strong and improve their visual scores this Saturday, Oct. 21, at the USBands Quad State Field Marching Competition at the DakotaDome in Vermillion.
The competition will be the last as a Marching Arrow for 11 senior members of the band including Stiles, who has been part of the band for five years.
“For me it’s kind of sad,” she said. “It’s my last band competition ever with the people I’ve been with since eighth grade.”
She said the band is like a family and she expects that family to put in another solid performance to cap the season.
The Arrows are scheduled to take the field at 1:45 p.m. in Vermillion and will compete against just one other band, Lennox, in the Group II Open Class. The band has faced Lennox three other times this year in field competitions in Waseca, Luverne and Sioux Falls, and been outscored each time by between 2.6 and 3.9 points.
Five days after the band’s last competition of the year, it will perform an indoor concert at the middle/high school auditorium for the home town fans at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 26. The concert is free and will include modified versions of the band’s field and parade shows, as well as some opportunities for band members to show their own creativity. There will also be an awards presentation and a slide show featuring images from the 2017 marching season.