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BANGS – Almost 30 years to the day since their last appearance, the Bangs Dragons make their triumphant return to the UIL State Marching Band Contest. And in the stands on Tuesday, Oct. 31 at the Alamodome in San Antonio will be six parents of seven students who themselves marched in the state contest back on Nov. 8, 1993.

“It’s pretty cool when one of your kids is in the same position you were in 30 years ago,” said Justin Duncan, whose son, Jace, plays trumpet in the band. “I didn’t realize it until we went to the first round and I was talking to Jason Scantling and he said we needed to take a picture. Everybody moves on and goes about their life, but for the seven kids and the six sets of parents, this is pretty special.”

Scantling, whose son Weston plays trombone and daughter Julia plays trumpet, added, “This is a blessing and I never imagined this would transpire. How often would something like this happen? It’s amazing they get to go have that same experience we did. We took a lot of pride in our band and marching and that’s very much the same mentality and attitude of our students in band today. They have the same can-do attitude, go out and have fun and do the best job you can.”

Duncan and Scantling, along with Amber Kennamer McCullough, Paige Rankin Gregory, Michael Bush and Jamie Cole, all competed for the Bangs band at the University of Texas’ Memorial Stadium three decades ago and now have the opportunity to watch their children enjoy the same experience.

“This couldn’t have worked out any better,” said McCullough, whose son, Dillon, plays trombone. “That has pulled this group of parents closer together. We went to school together 30 years ago and I haven’t even seen some of them in nearly 30 years. And to watch our kids also be that close like we were, and to get to watch them experience that same amazing feeling of being one of the best in the entire state of Texas, there’s more pride than I can describe.”

Gregory and her family moved back to Bangs prior to the start of the school year, and the band has provided a boost for her daughter, Addy, who plays trombone.

“My husband just retired from the Army and my eighth-grader has been in three different schools in three different years,” Gregory said. “Her sixth-grade year we were in South Carolina, her seventh-grade year we were in Alabama and now here for her eighth grade year. She was really struggling at the first of the year, didn’t want to be there, but the band kids welcomed her in and it was really special. She has band friends back in Alabama that don’t get to march with the high school band so it’s a really cool experience. She said she was grateful for getting integrated into the school so quickly and she’s really loving it.”

The Bangs Dragon Marching Band will be among 19 competing in the Class 2A division Tuesday, with a preliminaries performance time of 11:30 a.m. Bangs qualified for state at the regional contest at Mineral Wells on Oct. 21.

“The first round they seemed nervous and it was hot, but after made the finals you could see the relief on their face,” Duncan, who played trombone in 1993, said. “That evening they had chilled out a little bit and felt more relaxed. The parents were nervous knowing we needed to get in the top 3 to get in. I thought we were probably fourth or fifth, but the music was two-thirds of the score and I thought we had the best music, but you never know what the judges are going to score. But it turns out I was pretty close.”

Thirty years ago, Bangs competed at the area meet in Wichita Falls before moving on to Austin.

“In Wichita Falls it was crazy windy,” Gregory recalled. “The band got off because of the wind, the soloist couldn’t hear the rest of the band but we still managed to keep it together and keep going. We didn’t think we’d advance but we did.”

Further reflecting on their days in the band, Gregory, who played baritone saxophone, added, “The band had gotten relatively small but when the new Mr. (Rusty) Baldwin got here it started growing and growing every year. Our band was really big for the size school we were. The football players were in band, the cheerleaders were in band, the drill team was in band. It was really fun to see all the different uniforms just besides the band. We’re hoping Mr. Baldwin will be able to come Tuesday. He’s not too terribly far from San Antonio.”

For Scanting, who played the tuba, he spent most of his time with the football team in 1993 so to be allowed to march in competitions – especially state – is among his fondest high school memories

“In a small town like Bangs it’s fantastic that you get an opportunity to do multiple extracurricular activities,” Scantling said. “You can be a part of so many things, and it was great that they included me because I didn’t practice as much at doing the show under the lights as others.”

The backing the residents of Bangs showed toward the band 30 years ago is also a lasting memory.

“The band was an important part of the school during that time, and being in the band was an honor,” McCullough, who played flute, said. “The first thing I remember is the overwhelming community support and how they worked to get us these charter buses. It was so cool to ride those buses. Most of us had never gone out of town as group that big and spent the night anywhere, so that was a lot of fun.”

Once the Bangs band arrived in Austin, McCullough said, “Just the sheer size of that stadium, that blew us away as a little 2A school. There was a feeling of ‘we did this, this is so cool, and we should be proud of ourselves,’ and we really were.”

Duncan added, “Coming from a small town like Bangs most of us had never seen a stadium bigger than Gordon Wood Stadium. We went to Wichita Falls for area, but that thing was huge. I remember getting off the bus and we’re in the parking lot at UT and we walk in through the end zone and it was huge, we were almost in shell shock. Once we got down on the field and everybody got lined up it was business as usual, but it was an experience to see everyone sitting in the stands with green shirts on.”

The 1993 band year wasn’t all fun, however, as on Oct. 13 – less than a month before the state competition – Scotty Purcell, a member of the band, lost his life following a train-truck accident.

“It took us a while to get going again, but we decided we wanted to dedicate that season to him,” Duncan said. “Everybody had their spot when we lined up, but we left a gap when we lined up in our formation and that was his spot. There was always that open hole, and Mr. Baldwin was always big on spacing and steps and doing things right, but we had that hole and it was Scotty’s spot, and we left that for him as a way to honor him and his family. And his family still came. It was something that really brought us together as a band. We were really close, but when something like that happens it binds you together in a different kind of way. There were a lot of tears that year.”

McCullough added, “That banded us together as a family. We got closer and we did it for Scott. There were 80-something of us, and we all got along anyway, you never had any big fights or arguments and we all wanted to be the best. We were a very, very competitive group of people and we worked our tails off to be really good.”

A plaque remains in the band hall to this day honoring Purcell.

How the band performed at state that day in November 1993, no one seems to recall. And in the grand scheme of things, the memories are far more important than the final results. The 2023 band members are in the midst of making similar memories they, too, will carry with them long after the days of playing musical instruments have passed them by.

“No one remembers how we did at state, and it doesn’t matter,” Gregory said. “It was such a great time to even go.”