The Marching Bengals of Fuquay-Varina High School competed in the Corinth Holders Competition Oct. 26 and won numerous awards, including Reserve Grand Champion out of all seven 1A and 2A schools and first place in their class (2A) which included two other bands. Other awards the Bengals took home include first place in colorguard, first place in music performance, third place in visual performance and second place in percussion.

“We practiced a lot, every day,” said senior Wren Morales, a member of the marching band.

The band began practicing their show in August, working on it throughout their entire season. This was the first time the band participated in the Corinth Holders Competition since 2019.

The Marching Bengals had their senior night on Friday, the night before the competition. This allowed the band to get into a mindset that allowed them to excel.

“We were able to get extra hyped,” said junior Danielle Johnson. “Our show was a sequel from last year. I think having the mindset of how we want to close this story really helped people figure out where we wanted to be for this show.”

This year’s theme was Into the Light, succeeding last year’s theme Into the Dark. The Marching Bengals, despite all of their hard work, said they were pleasantly surprised to take home the title of Reserve Grand Champion.

“I was expecting first or second, not Reserve Grand Champion,” said senior Kenzie Leighton.

With their performance being one of the best runs they had, the band feels very happy and proud of their results.

“When you make progress that’s steady and consistent, it’s really easy to not see it. But I watched one of the recordings from our previous competitions and we improved exponentially,” said Johnson. “I could see everyone was putting in all the work they could all the time. It was really nice we got that reward, that tangible item to show that we put in the work and did a good job.”

This award sweep at the final competition of the year for the Marching Bengals allowed the seniors to end their season on a high note.