{"id":30271,"date":"2023-12-08T19:11:10","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T02:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-band-is-7th-at-state-contest\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:15:59","slug":"montezuma-cortez-band-is-7th-at-state-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-band-is-7th-at-state-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez band is 7th at state contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Veterans
Veterans from the Cortez American Legion post march during the Veteran's Day parade.<\/span>Matthew Tangeman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Few images evoke the notion of civic pride like the sound of brass, woodwinds, and thumping of drums on a cool autumn evening. Whether setting the tone for Cortez\u2019s annual Parade of Lights or entertaining the crowds at home football games, the Montezuma-Cortez Marching Panthers have been an institution in the community.<\/p>\n

Not only a point of pride for the Four Corners, the Marching Panthers have established themselves as one of the premier small school marching bands in the state. For yet another year, M-CHS qualified for the Colorado Bandmasters Association State Championships, taking home seventh place in the 2A classification.<\/p>\n

Under the direction of second-year director of bands William Winslow, the Panthers saw an increased involvement from the student body, growing the band to more than 70 performers \u2013 one of the largest turnouts for the program in years.<\/p>\n

Theming their production as \u201cDare to Fly,\u201d the Marching Panthers compiled their show as a celebration of the history of American aviation. Included in their performance, Winslow\u2019s group performed \u201cThe Spirit of St. Louis,\u201d \u201cAmelia\u2019s Lament,\u201d and theme music from cinematic favorite \u201cTop Gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking for music that could tell a meaningful story and that would also be fun to perform,\u201d said Winslow, \u201cI think we hit both of those marks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers band overcame challenges throughout the season, including having to make a shift at drum major midseason. Tamryn Ashton stepped in for Alicia Brito to guide the band, and Winslow lauded both for their passion and leadership.<\/p>\n

In their regional competition at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction, the Panthers put together a top-tier performance, finishing with an overall score of 63.85, placing them right in the mix of the top schools on the Western Slope, and landing a spot in the state championships in Pueblo.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost everything that we had been working up to that point cam through,\u201d added Winslow. \u201cWe scored higher at regionals than we did in either of the previous two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS followed their regional performance with a trip to the Steel City, and represented the Four Corners well. \u201cI\u2019d consider the season a success,\u201d assessed the director of bands, \u201cand so much of it has to do with the fantastic support from middle school director Andrew Campo, percussion coach Preston Sitton, color guard coach Robyn Sitton, and assistant director Chris Moraga \u2013 as well as all the wonderful parents who make up the band boosters.\u201d<\/p>\n

In just his second year at the helm, Winslow has big visions for the continued success of the Marching Panthers. \u201cI\u2019m excited for next year already,\u201d concluded Winslow, \u201cand where we can go from here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marching Panthers reinforce reputation in 2A classification<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,36,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30271"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81017,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30271\/revisions\/81017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30271"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}