The Sanger High School marching band is the 2009 United States Scholastic Band Association’s Group II A state champion.

In its first appearance in the USSBA Texas competition, the 76-member group managed to earn the contest’s top award in its category. Del Valle High School, which went on to compete Tuesday for the University Interscholastic League Class 4A championship, finished runner-up to Sanger in Saturday’s competition at Conroe’s Woodforest Stadium.

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The Sanger High School band performs its Super Cell show Saturday during the United States Scholastic Band Association state competition at Woodforest Stadium in Conroe. Sanger was named the USSBA Group II A state champion.

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Sanger band director Jim Wiggins said that to finish above one of the contenders for the UIL state title was “pretty awesome.”

“That tells me that we achieved a lot, because we were competing with a band that had already made UIL state,” Wiggins said.

The USSBA contest gave Sanger, a Class 3A marching group, the opportunity to compete for a state award in a year when 3A bands don’t compete for the UIL state championship, Wiggins said. UIL state marching contests are conducted bi-annually based on school classification.

The performance in Conroe was his band’s best of the marching season, Wiggins said. The competition show was titled Super Cell — a four-movement piece about thunderstorms written by Chris Garcia, the band’s former student teacher. The group performed a routine with rain sticks for visual effect and also got audiences involved in the second movement, encouraging them to pat their hands and legs to mimic the sounds of a thunderstorm.

“This is kind of a step up for us in going to the next level — taking our performance and our program to the next level,” Wiggins said. “I’m extremely proud of our students and how we never gave up. They never gave up or stopped improving.”

The USSBA contest, an extension of Youth Education in the Arts, was formed in 1988. It is a nationally recognized sanctioning body, and its Web site says it hosts up to 125 high school marching band events in 25 states.

Unlike UIL competitions, marching groups competing in the USSBA contest get only one performance before judges and there is no final round, Wiggins said.

Sanger band members expressed feelings of nervousness prior to performing, but those emotions were soon replaced with excitement as they made their way onto the field to present their performance before judges and spectators. Students summed up Saturday’s show as exciting and fun to perform.

Tyler Lenington, a senior, said that the USSBA contest was the one that really seemed to matter this season since UIL state contests are bi-annual. Lenington, a saxophonist, said Sanger put weeks worth of work into presenting an entertaining show, and it was rewarding to win at the contest.

“I thought it was pretty nice that we managed to pull through and win this thing,” he said.

Following their performance, band members took a tour of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Band members learned on the bus after the tour that they were contest champions.They responded to the news with “total excitement,” Wiggins said.

“They all came out of their … seats, not believing they had actually done it — achieving their ultimate goal for this year,” he said with a laugh.

Wiggins said that the band expects to receive judges’ critiques, videos and tapes this week, along with a championship award.

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com  .