ROTTERDAM Marching Warriors bring home the cup Field band shares top small school honors with Le Roy squad BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
The Governor’s Cup is back at Mohonasen. For the second time in three years, the district’s Marching Warriors have brought home the silver trophy for New York’s top field marching band in the “Small Schools 2” category at the annual competition at the Syracuse Carrier Dome Sunday. “It was an awesome day for us,” said an exhilarated Keith Bushey, the Warriors’ band director. “All the hard work and everything the kids did really paid off.” The cup last paid a visit to the Mohonasen in 2006, when the Warriors earned a second-place showing at the competition in 2006. But because the top-scoring band was from Pennsylvania, the district received the cup, which can only be given to a competing band from the Empire State. This year, there was no score better than the 84.1 earned by the Warriors for their “Abstract Impulse,” a performance borrowing its theme from the early 20th century Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. Earning the top billing at their fi nal competition for the season leaves Mohonasen’s 107-member field marching band and color guard undefeated at all the competitions they attended this year. In what Bushey considered an oddity of the competition, the Warriors will share their distinction with Le Roy High School. The Genesee County school received an identical score to Mohonasen, which will relinquish the cup to the co-winners after keeping it in Rotterdam for the next few months. The Governor’s Cup was kept at Le Roy last year, after they were named the top New York band in the 2007 competition. Like Mohonasen in 2006, they were second in the scoring, with the top performing band being from out of state. For Mohonasen drum majors Jamie Roscoe and Audrey Sabatini, both seniors, the victory in Syracuse was a perfect fi nale to a season that exceeded all of their expectations. They both went into their award-winning performance late Sunday morning with an air of confidence, but also knowing they had some stiff competition. “We went on first, so we were trying to set the bar high, so no one could touch us,” explained Roscoe. Neither student was aware how high they had set the bar until the judges were announcing the winners. When the judges announced there would be no second-place finalist this year, they knew the Governor’s Cup was coming back to the district. “I heard nothing after that,” said Sabatini, recalling the roar of cheers that erupted after the Warriors realized they had won. “It’s the best that I could have asked for.” Sabatini and Roscoe are among 20 graduating students with the Marching Warriors this year. Roscoe is hoping to attend the Crane School at the State University of New York College Potsdam, while Sabatini is hoping to study abroad. Though both students were thrilled about their victory, the both felt a twinge of remorse for the conclusion of their marching years at Mohonasen. Despite grueling hours of practice and the weekends of traveling halfway across New York, Sabatini said she’d miss her days performing with the band. “It’s over so quickly,” she said. “But we went out with a bang.”
BARRY SLOAN/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Mohonasen High School Drum Majors Jamie Roscoe, left, and Audrey Sabatini hold the Small School Division 2 Governor’s Cup in their band room Monday afternoon.
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