WHS Band Celebrates Region, Area, State Winners
The Waller High School (WHS) Band is proud to announce winners of the Region, Area, and All-State competitions. After lengthy preparation and several phases of auditions, the following students have competed against some of the best in Texas to earn their places in varying qualifications and honor bands:
- Area Qualifiers: Julian Juarez (flute), Tori Turner (clarinet), Connor Brown (trumpet), Shayla Smith (trumpet), and Aaron Sterling (horn). These musicians competed against representatives from other 5A schools in the Region to earn Area qualification.
- First Chair, Ninth-Grade All-Region Band: Baylor McDugle (tenor saxophone) and Helmut Ulrich (bari saxophone). These musicians competed against others up to class 6A to become the top ninth-grader in the Region, regardless of classification.
- All-District: Cesar Villa (trumpet). Villa earned his All-District title after competing against more than 1700 others in the Region up to class 6A.
- All-Region Band: Chris Rodriguez (trumpet), Connor Brown (trumpet), and Aaron Sterling (horn). These musicians competed against more than 1700 others in the Region up to class 6A to earn their place in the All-Region Band.
- All-State Band: Aaron Sterling (horn). Sterling rose to the top at all levels of competition to become one of the few in the state to be a part of the All-State Band. He is one of the top two 5A horn players in the Area. Sterling will perform with the All-State Band at the Texas Music Educators Association convention in February.
Region competition was made up of representatives from Bellville, Brenham, Cypress-Fairbanks, Hempstead, Navasota, Royal, Sealy, Spring Branch, and Waller ISD. Area included all the Region districts plus 75 other greater Houston area districts such as Conroe, Galena Park, Humble, Klein, Magnolia, Montgomery, Spring, Tomball, and Willis.
“These kids have worked incredibly hard to reach their goals,” Waller ISD Director of Bands Grant McWilliams said. “They have put in countless hours of practice to be successful in the different phases of auditions and represented us very well. I look forward to what the future holds for each of them.”