A new adjective has been added when introducing the Booker T. Washington Marching Wildcats, diverse!

If you missed the Battle of the Bands on November 13th, 2005, then just take off your shoe, in fact take off both shoes and kick yourself with them. It was that good!!

You missed "THEM" (if you were there you know what we are talking about) and you missed perhaps the most entertaining show the Wildcats have put on this year. The only snafu was that the Jackson State University drum line decided to 'warm-up'. We had a noise conflict for a bit, just at the Marching Wildcats were taking the stage. When we say taking we literally mean taking. Our drum majors entered on motorcycles to the delight and roar of the crowd!!! Let me clear my throat--On MOTORCYLES.

The Wildcats had the crowd doing the "Apache" and took us for a journey with various selections with synchronous steps. You just wanted to get up and dance with them. What really got the crowd excited was the Wildcats marching off to their signature, "Let's Go Wildcats" and then they froze.. ok.. We mean froze… remember this is live, so you can't redo it if someone forgot to freeze…. And everyone froze…. Being live you can't rewind, but the Wildcats did just that they rewound!! The crowd went wild… Our Wildcat Mascot showed the crowd that there are more dancing Wildcats than just the Tiger! Ok "insider" information…. We found out that our Mascot learned the dance steps from our drum majors just moments before the event… Talk about talented!!! Perhaps next year between the drum lines facing off, we can put our Wildcat against any other mascot in town for a dance off and let "THEM" be the judge (-:..!!! If you come to the football games you know he can get down!!

The Wildcats wound down to the beat of our Drum Line. Perhaps the best at the show, but after all they are our Wildcats!!! We've seen and heard drum lines play, but sometimes it seems more of a show and noise than actual musicality. Refreshing to your eyes and pleasurable to your ears is how we would describe our drum line. And they didn't even show all their tricks!!

If this event shows you anything it shows the dedication of our Band Director, Mr. Young, his staff, the volunteers, the parents and finally the Wildcats that work so hard. Those involved in the band know the hard work and time it takes to put on a great show. We at theplayingcats.com hope to be able to show you the other side of the show. What goes on before the band gets on the bus!!

We hope next year that the five Mobile Bands that didn't get to participate will be able to join in on the activities next year. We know the kids in the bands have been working very hard leading up to this event. Hopefully the politics will get straightened out and we can get back to the enjoyment of music. According to "thebigstation93blx.com" over one thousand of the local band kids attended the event for free. Next year we hope to have them on the stage with our Wildcats. theplayingcats.com has researched the issues and we understand why the Mobile county school board decided to withdraw their participating schools. We just hope the issues get settled and remember we are doing this for the kids. On the other hand we also want to make sure that all the area bands can share fairly in the money raised by the sale of the tickets. Have you priced a new tuba/sousaphone lately, it can be well over $2,500.

Our little Wildcat crawled into his bed last night after he turned his computer and TV on and had a smile on his face and said, "I just want to lie here for a while." Moments like that is why we do this website and work so hard to bring you the best coverage of our band and perhaps any band on the web!!

Support your Wildcats anyway you can!!! --tpc