Posted: Sunday, November 8, 2009 6:51 am

The last time a Rutherford County high school won the Contest of Champions Richard Nixon was president, America was at war with Vietnam and Central High was the only comprehensive high school in Murfreesboro.

In 1971, the Central High School Band captured the contest under band director Bob Lee.

Siegel High Schools’ 165-member marching band, including the color guard, broke the county’s 38-year dry spell by winning the prestigious Contest of Champions competition Oct. 31 at MTSU.

The competition is considered the state championship for high school marching bands.

Four parents of Siegel band members marched with the champion 1971 Central High School Band.

The band performed “Paintings in the Night Sky” written exclusively for Siegel by Frank Sullivan, arranger/composer for the Siegel band. Randy Rhody and Ed Medford direct the band.

Jennifer Stembridge, MTSU’s Contest of Champions coordinator, said Siegel, Riverdale and Oakland bands in Rutherford County joined 21 bands from Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Indiana in competing.

Seven judges rated bands on:

• Music: tone quality, technique and musicality or how well the band plays.

• General effect: communication of the music and coordination.

• Visual: technique and form control and how the music relates to the show visually.

“I thought our judges did an outstanding job,” Stembridge said. “We hire a high caliber of judge with a lot of experience with marching band competition. We’re the oldest consecutive marching band contest in the nation in our 48th year.”

Siegel received the Grand Championship Plaque, a finalist cup, the Tennessee Governor’s Cup started in 1962 by former MTSU band director Joseph T. Smith and the Tennessee and Grand Champion flags.

Medford said students and parents were excited about winning the contest, along with winning two contests in Georgia, the Travelers’ Rest Invitational and the McGavock Music City Invitational, both in Nashville.

Medford thanked students for their hard work and parents for helping, feeding the band and traveling with the band. About 100 parents attend each contest.

“This has probably been our best season since the opening of the school,” Medford said as Siegel won every contest it entered this fall.