We begin this week by first offering our congratulations to all of our students for their earning a Superior Rating at UIL Region Marching Contest this weekend! This qualifies them to advance to the Area Contest this coming weekend, and represents the 21^st Consecutive Superior Rating for The Spirit of OHS! 

UPDATED: We now have a performance time for Saturday’s Area Contest. We will perform at 1:45 pm. Students need to be at the Game Field for warm-up at 8 am, then we will feed them breakfast and work to get ready for the event.

Leading up to that, every rehearsal is incredibly important! This week we have a rehearsal tomorrow morning from 9 am to noon with a guest clinician. Please have students arrive before 8:30 am to unload their equipment and be ready to go to the stadium at 9 am. At 8 am, we will play the judge comment videos in the band hall for any students who can get there to listen to and watch the feedback we received. Our other out-of-school rehearsal will be on Thursday evening from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm. That will be our final rehearsal before Area, and for both rehearsals, we must have all students present unless they are playing in the JV Football game on Thursday. 

Friday is a home football game vs. Hebbronville, and students will need to be at the Band Hall by 5:30 pm to prepare for the game.

Area will be Saturday for us, and then next week will keep the Bandtober rolling as we have our Band Senior Night Recognition on that Friday, 10/30, vs. George West, and then host the UIL 2A Area Competition on Saturday, 10/31. 

For the 2A Area Contest, it is imperative that we have plenty of volunteers again! This year we believe 14 bands have advanced to the Area 2A Contest, so they will have a 7-band final competition in the evening. We’ll need volunteers likely around 10:30 am or 11:00 am (pending schedule from UIL), and we will most likely conclude the contest around 9:00 pm. With 14 schools attending, we’ll especially need some adult help with managing the parking lot for participating bands and the post-performance lot. Please sign up for a role here: https://tinyurl.com/26AreaVolunteer. All students must attend the whole event, as we will perform in Exhibition at the end of prelims, and we will need help managing all duties throughout the contest.

Finally, our final weekend of marching band competitions this year will be next week, with our game in Falfurrias, followed by traveling to San Antonio to sleep in a hotel prior to competing in the Bands of America Super Regional Competition at the Alamodome. We received our time this past week: 9:15 am for that performance! We will stay through the prelims and, after awards, plan to have dinner before heading home that evening unless we win our conference (at which point we would have a finals run). 

As you can see, this is a sprint to the finish of the long marching season. We look forward to seeing how the students do this weekend in Alice!

This Week’s Schedule

Monday:	Judges Comment Videos: 8:00 am Unload Trailer/Truck/Setup at Stadium: 8:30 am Rehearsal with Clinician: 9 am to Noon
Tuesday:	Band Hall Open until 4:30 pm
Wednesday:	Band Hall Open until 4:30 pm
Thursday:	HS Band Evening Rehearsal (Final before Area)	6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Friday:	Odem vs. Hebbronville 5:30 pm: Students at Band Hall 7:30 pm: Game Begins ~10:00 pm: Game Ends/Dismissed
Saturday:	UIL Area Marching Contest (TENTATIVE!) At Game Field for Warm-Up: 8:00 am Breakfast/Sr. Speeches: 8:30 am In Bibbers/Check: 9:30 am – 10:00 am Load: 10:30 am Depart: 10:45 am Arrive: 11:45 am Warm-Up: 1:00 pm Perform: 1:45 pm Announcement of Finalists: 5:30 pm Dinner or Prepare to Perform again

Upcoming Events:

Monday:	District Holiday: Rehearsal with Clinician 9 am to noon
Friday:	Odem vs. Hebbronville (Home)
Saturday:	UIL Area 3A Marching Contest (Alice)
October 30th:	Odem vs. George West (Home – Senior Band Night)
October 31st:	Host UIL 2A Area Marching Contest
November 6th:	Depart Odem for Falfurrias Game. We will leave from Falfurrias to San Antonio for Overnight stay
November 7th:	Bands of America Super-Regional at the Alamodome (Tickets available now on Ticketmaster.com) 9:15 am Performance
November 11th:	Veteran’s Day Ceremony
November 14th:	Junior High All-Region Auditions
December 5th:	High School All-Region Auditions
December 8th:	Odem JH Winter Concert (6:30 pm)
December 10th:	Odem HS Winter Concert (6:30 pm)
December 11-12th:	All-Region Clinic/Concert (TAMUK)

Thank you for your help and support of these amazing students! Please contact us if you have any questions!