Marching Band

The South Carroll High School Jazz and Marching bands recently scored big wins at the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Va.On May4, the Jazz Band took first place in the Class B competition. This is the first time in the band's history they have scored this well in the competition."I'm extremely pleased and proud of the group's accomplishments,"said Band Director Bradley Collins. "The group worked hard this year."The Jazz Band also captured the Directors Award, given to the band that took third place in the overall competition out of all classes.

Last Sunday's New York Times sports section had so many references to Maryland athletics that we thought we were reading a new zoned edition of the Times' sports pages.Page two featured a lengthy rehash of the National Football League's expansion process, which -- in case you didn't hear -- left Baltimore high and dry. On page nine, the fast start of the University of Maryland basketball team was detailed.And on page three, columnist George Vecsey wrote a melancholy piece about the marching band that continues to perform under the banner of the Baltimore Colts a decade after the team bolted for Indianapolis.

River Hill High School's marching band earned the title of national champion in Group III at the second annual U.S. Scholastic Band Association National Championships on Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium. Competing with 14 other bands based on school size, the Clarksville school finished with a score of 95.55 (out of 100). It also won awards for best visual performance and best music performance. River Hill placed second in best overall effect, third in best color guard and fifth in best percussion.

Youth Education in the Arts (YEA!) and the Westminster High School marching band are sponsoring a drum and bugle corps competition Thursday that will feature seven groups: the Cadets, the Crossmen, Boston Crusaders, Carolina Crown, Jersey Surf, Magic of Orlando and Spirit from Jacksonville State University in Alabama. The event, a fund-raiser for the band that will be held at Westminster High's football field, will also feature clinics for students, said Mark Lortz, a band director at Westminster High.

A Union Bridge man was in serious but stable condition yesterday at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore after being thrown from a skid loader Monday.Police said Wayne Delandio Green, an employee of the Leese farm on Ladiesburg Road in Union Bridge, was dumping hog manure into a waste management facility about 12:30 p.m. Monday when the small tractor he was driving tipped forward.Mr. Green, 40, was wearing a seat belt but was thrown forward out of the loader seat. Police said his leg was caught between the loader bucket and the concrete edge of the pit.Mr.

The Liberty High School Marching Band became the first Maryland bandto capture state titles in three different groups when it took firstin the Group III competition Saturday at Memorial Stadium.In previous Maryland State High School Band championships, the Lions won the Group I title in 1987 and Group II in 1988 and 1990. In 1989, they finished a close second to Old Mill of Anne Arundel County.Their four titles tie the Lions with North Hagerstown, which claims the most wins during the six years of state competitions.

Raymond J. Dombrowski, who taught music at Bel Air High School for more than 30 years and also was leader of the school's band and Bobcat Marching Band, died Monday of pancreatic cancer at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. He was 79. Mr. Dombrowski, the son of Polish immigrant parents, was born in Pittsburgh and raised in New Castle, Pa. He began playing piano when he was 4, and after learning to play the saxophone and clarinet when he was a teenager, began performing with local dance bands.

A 27-year-old former band assistant at North Carroll High School has been charged with four counts of sending child pornography over the Internet to two teen-age students whom he allegedly solicited to pose naked for him, authorities said yesterday. Donald Edward Godman of the 900 block of Francis Ave. in Halethorpe, Baltimore County, was a part-time percussion instructor and band assistant at the school when he began instant messaging the girls on the computer as far back as 2000, according to charging documents in Carroll County District Court.

For Robert Bolth, the town of Havre de Grace's early celebration of Independence Day was a big welcome-to-the-neighborhood event. "I moved just in time for the rain and the parade," newcomer Bolth said, watching the procession from a shady spot on a rock along Union Avenue. "It's a nice vibe, and it's nice to see all the floats get applause. There seems to be room for everyone here." Thousands showed up for the three-hour parade - and many waved small flags, sang along to a marching band's rendition of "You're a Grand Old Flag" and cheered the civic groups, bands and majorettes.

This was another working Fourth of July for Evelyn Moody, who has spent most holidays since she was 16 either twirling a baton or directing a West Baltimore marching band. The difference this time was that she was troubled by the memory of soldiers who didn't come back from the Persian Gulf war."You think about the soldiers who died and are never going to see this kind of thing again," she said, as her band, the Charm City Challengers, marched along the avenues of Fort Meade yesterday, past many soldiers who had returned from that war.Moody started out as a majorette, then directed the Firebirds, a West Baltimore band that disbanded in 1984.