On Saturday, Oct. 26, the marching band and Chatonettes marched and danced out of the Florida Bandmasters Association (FBA) competition at Traz Powell Stadium with Superior awards. The performers earned a Superior in music, general effect and auxiliary for their James Bond show, which fit Palmetto’s 2013 Homecoming theme.

They have performed the first two movements of their routine during football games and at a Hialeah showcase, but at the FBA competition, they finally performed their entire show.

“We have practice for two hours, three days a week,” sophomore and Chatonette Niah Greenwald said. “We work on our formation, flag work, dance technique and timing with the band.”

Due to rain, the third and final movement of the James Bond-themed routine received less rehearsal time than expected. Still, the students managed to pull it off.

“We didn’t finish the drill [until] the day before which [was] not good,” said junior and band member Neomi Lowe. “But somehow we managed to pull through. Right when we [finished] the last set of the whole show it started raining. Saturday morning we were able to run the whole show about five times.”

Nerves were at a high during the performance. The band and Chatonettes performed their best, however, beating their drums loud and waving their flags high.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking to have all of the bands stare at us as we walked on,” Greenwald said. “It made me more nervous, but we still did great.”

The hard work paid off when the young performers found out their scores. They did not expect to receive a Superior.

“To be honest, we were surprised,” Neomi Lowe said. “Only about 13 out of 30 schools got Superiors. It’s hard, but not that hard, every detail counts.”

A video of the winning show can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_L9emLISaw.