The ivory white on the audience’s freezing fingers went unnoticed as each pair of eyes became glued to the figures swirling on the field in front of them. Gathered at Prospect’s 23rd Knight of Champions, people were clinging tightly onto their ink-black stadium seats as the announcer called for the results. The open air was both swallowed and inhaled when the speakers rung, awoken and projecting the opening statement for the moment everyone was waiting for.

The awards.

On Oct. 6, at exactly 8 p.m., the results of Class 3A, the biggest of the three competitive classes, were announced.

To the disappointment of the Marching Red Raiders, Huntley was fifth place out of the seven marching bands that participated in the class that night.

Despite the unreasonable placement, the Marching Red Raiders’s score did increase 1.8 from last year’s score: 72.500. It effectively demonstrates how Kevin Krivosik, the new band director, is planning to bring the marching band to newer, higher heights.

Two bands, Glenbrook and Oak Park / River Forest, had the highest increase in scores between this year and last year’s Knight of Champions, but still took sixth and seventh place this year.

Furthermore, Joliet West’s and Washington Community’s performance left an intimidating presence amongst the other five teams. In their place came Concord and Victor J. Andrew, who dominated the competition by scoring first and third.

Victor J. Andrew is not a new competitor. They have participated in the Knight of Champions since 2003. However, they may have participated longer than 2003, but since there is no documented statistics of the Knight of Champions before 2002, there is no telling of what actually happened in those undocumented competitions.

Meanwhile, Concord does not even have a website within the Illinois Marching Online website; a catalog of all competitions and band profiles in Illinois. With little information on their own website, not much can be concluded from this mysterious winner who swayed the judges so pleasingly.

It is thrilling to say that Huntley will have bigger expectations to overcome in the near future if they want to become recognized for their rigorous work. Now they have three rudimentary challenges: the mysterious rivals, the bettering challengers, and the respected judges.