FT. MITCHELL, Ky. — It was a true winner's welcome for the Beechwood High School Marching Tigers, as the high school band came home as state champions.
Parents, friends and neighbors lined up on both sides of Beechwood Road, with flowers, cowbells and signs.
"It's not about them winning so much as it's about the hard work they put in. But the fact that they won and that they're champions, it's just the icing on the cake," said Quinn Ankrum, whose daughter is on the team.
The team arrived with a special escort from local police officers and firefighters, jumping straight into the arms of their loved ones.
"It makes me very sad to leave because this community is like a huge reason why I'm just so proud to be here," said Reese Thompson, a senior and section leader for the band.
Watch to get a glimpse of the Northern Kentucky high school performance that took home a state title:
Thompson said months of rehearsal have gone into making this team the best 2A band in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
"We've been doing three hours a day, four days a week for the past two-three months, maybe. And then in the summer there was band camp, which was 9-5 for a week straight, so countless really," Thompson said.
This year's piece was called "Fractured Paradise," according to Beechwood's Director of Bands, Austin Bralley. Bralley praised the work of his team, made up of grades 7-12.
"This is the youngest group in at least 20 years at Beechwood, and from the first day at band camp till now, the change and the growth is just phenomenal," Bralley said.
The band performed a special encore of "Fractured Paradise" for family and friends after they returned to the school.
This win marks the 12th state championship for Beechwood High School, according to a parent from Beechwood Bands.
