After placing first in almost every competition this season, the Reeths-Puffer marching band won the state title in Detroit on Nov. 3. The shows theme this year was “Paris Sketches”.

This year’s fall production was titled “Paris Sketches” with music from both Martin Ellerby’s “Paris Sketches” and George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris”.

“Imagine the Eiffel tower and the promenade surrounding it, along with many of the other iconic images of Paris and you have the source material for the story line of this production,” said R-P Marching Band Director Chuck Hodson.

Before winning the state title, the R-P marching band has been dominating the competitions this season by placing first in their class at every event except one, where they came in second in their class in the preliminary competition, but first in their class finals.

At the Belding Invitational on Sept. 29, the band placed first in flight 3, and also received the titles of best music, best visual and best general effect.

Their next competition brought them to the Pontiac Silverdome on Oct. 6, where they place second in the Class AA preliminaries and first place in the Class AA finals. The band also won the award for best visuals.

According to Hodson, as the season progressed it only got better. At the Jenison competition on Oct. 20, Reeths-Puffer was the Grand Champion of the event, scoring higher than all the other bands in the competition regardless of class and at the RP show, the band once again had the highest score (even though they were only exhibition because they were the host).

From their obvious winning streak, one would expect the band to be ready to dominate the MCBA state championship, but Hodson never let up on the practices.

“The students worked very hard all the way to the end of the season and were able to perform fabulously because of that work ethic,” Hodson said.

After it was announced that Reeths-Puffer placed first at the MCBA state championship and won best music, best visual and best general effect, the students were excited but displayed great sportsmanship and appreciation for the other bands performances, Hodson said.

At the MCBA state championship this year the band’s score was 90.6, which placed the group at the top of Flight 3 by more than three points and the band captured all the caption awards along the way.

“Our main purpose in doing what we do is to focus on having a great experience as well as focusing on the achievement of excellence,” Hodson said. “Winning is like the icing on the cake, something that is sweet, but it is not the main purpose.”

The students will forever remember this journey and the experiences they had along the way as well as the extended family that they have created in going through all of this together, Hodson said.

The band will not be attending the national competition this year, as they only go every other year.