Steve Steiner
The Colleton County High School Band of Blue Marching Band is among the best in South Carolina, and two of its divisions recently medaled, coming in second place at separated competitions.
First to win was the Band of Blue Varsity Winter Guard in the 2023 Carolina Winter Ensemble Association Championships that took place April 1 at Winthrop University. Its second-place finish was in the Scholastic AAA class.
More than 80 schools, from Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, competed against CCHS and other South Carolina high schools.
On April 15, the Band of Blue Winter Percussion team earned its silver medal at the 2023 Carolina Winter Ensemble Association Percussion Championship, which was held at Dorman High School, in Spartanburg.
In addition to placing second in the Percussion Scholastic A Class, the CCHS Winter Percussion was promoted to the A Class Division, having competed in the Novice class and winning in 2019 and 2022.
“We have a strong tradition,” said Tom Finigan, who heads the music department at the high school. It’s a tradition that goes back to the 1940s, when the then-high school traveled across the U.S., to cities such as Chicago.
Following desegregation, when the two high schools merged (with a third school based in Ruffin added in 1980), Bill Young Jr., now mayor of Walterboro came up with the band’s name. According to Finigan, who first was a member of the band under Young, and later his assistant, the name was the same as the one at Middle Tennessee State.
“However, you say Band of Blue and most people in the state think of Walterboro,” said Finigan.
Through its various stages, the Band of Blue has appeared in parades and events nationwide, including the Orange Bowl, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Tournament of Roses (in Pasadena, Calif.), and several times at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
The band, in its various makeups (Marching, Concert/Symphonic, Jazz, Winter Percussion, and Varsity Winter Guard) currently is composed of 140 students, a far cry from its first year of existence, 1973, when it totaled 18 students; at its largest it numbered 260 students.
Next on tap for CCHS and the Band of Blue will be hosting the Class 5A Division of the South Carolina Band Directors Association. CCHS will not be competing since it is in a different division.
