Who Are We?  ONE PRIDE

The Marching Pride of Lawrence Township is a joint effort between Lawrence Central High School and Lawrence North High School.  This combined, township-wide high school marching band competes at both the Indiana state with the Indiana State School Music Association and National level through Bands of America.

The Marching Pride is a Class A band in the “Open Class” category, which means that we qualify for a chance to compete in the ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) State Finals.

• The contest season begins with Invitationals hosted by various high schools in the Indianapolis area.  We choose which to attend based on our availability and preparedness.  The scores are for instructional purposes and do not factor into our State or National standing.
• Next, the ISSMA season begins with Regional qualifications.  The top 10 bands from each region will progress to ISSMA Semi-State Finals.  The Open Class State Finals feature the top 10 bands from Semi-State Finals.  The top-scoring band will earn the ISSMA State Championship.  Competitions take place at various Indianapolis-area high schools, except the State Finals, which take place at Lucas Oil Stadium.
• Finally, the Marching Pride participates in the BOA (Bands of America) competitions, all of which take place at Lucas Oil Stadium. BOA hosts Super Regional Competitions in four locations in the nation, one of them in Indianapolis.  MPLT has enrolled in this two-day competition which involves up to 60 regional bands, with 12 to 14 bands advancing to Regional Finals.  Bands from different classes (from A to AAAA, Marching Pride is AAAA) compete against one another, and while caption awards are based on class, the finals competition is not. This is a self-contained event that does not effect our standing in subsequent BOA competitions.
• The last contest of the season is the BOA Grand National Championships, which fortunately takes place right here in Indianapolis. MPLT has enrolled in the Grand National Prelims along with well over 100 other marching bands from across the nation; it takes place the Thursday and Friday before Saturday Semi-Finals and Saturday night Finals.  We typically perform on Thursday, then spend Friday watching other bands perform and rehearsing at the convention center.  When the two-day Prelims contest concludes, 30 bands advance to Semi-Finals with a formula that ensures inclusion of representatives of each of the four classes, and the top scoring bands from the two separate Prelims contests and the overall event.  The top 12 scoring bands from Semi- Finals, regardless of class, advance to Saturday evening’s finals.