Pride Of Broken Arrow Marching Band Wins National Championship

The Pride of Broken Arrow won the Bands of America Grand National title in Indianapolis Saturday night.

It's the third time the band has won the title.

Performing a show called “Wild Blue Orchid,” Broken Arrow beat out Avon, Indiana by a score of 97.5 to 97.0 to win. 

Each band was graded on three areas: music, visual and general effect. Broken Arrow and Avon tied for the visual performance title in the finals, but
the Pride beat Avon by 4-tenths of a point in general effect. Broken Arrow also outscored Avon in the music category, which was won by Hebron, Texas, High School.

Hebron beat out Broken Arrow in the semifinals earlier Saturday, capturing that round’s music and general effect awards to win the Class 4A title with 97.85 points to the Pride’s 97.2. However, Hebron finished third overall in finals after Broken Arrow and Avon pulled ahead in general effect and narrowed Hebron’s advantage in the music caption.

Broken Arrow previously won titles in 2006 and 2011, according to a James Royal, Vice President of Communication for the Broken Arrow Band Parents Association.

In addition to its three national titles, the Pride of Broken Arrow is a 14-time consecutive Oklahoma Bandmasters Association champion, having won that title 23 times. The Pride also won this year’s Bands of America St. Louis Super Regional and has won that event 10 times.