Owasso Invitational Marching Contest: 25 years of work
By Addison Welborn
The Owasso Invitational Marching Contest (OIMC) is one of the most important days in Owasso’s competition band season. On Saturday, Sept. 28, Bixby took first place at the 2024 OIMC, but the process of planning and executing this event goes far beyond competition day. This event was able to happen because of years worth of hard work, by many hardworking people, who do this because they love Owasso bands and its members.
David Gorham created the OIMC 25 years ago as head director of Owasso Bands. He retired in 2014 and has returned to act as head director for the 2024-25 school year.
Gorham explained the impact of the OIMC, saying, “Financially, it's a great support for the band program, … [OIMC helps] to offset costs that otherwise the students would have to incur.”
These “offset costs” are not miniscule. Owasso’s marching band travels to a national band competition every year, and this cost is typically the brunt of the competition band fee for students. Last year, both the Owasso and Broken Arrow competition marching bands went to a competition in Orlando. Broken Arrow’s fee was $3500 while Owasso’s was $1200.
The OIMC is not only a financial benefit to Owasso’s competition band, it is also, as described by Gorham, a performance “boost,” as it gives the students a chance to perform in front of a band crowd and judges for the first time.
Gorham said when he started the OIMC, he saw it as, “an educational opportunity and [an] opportunity for us to use our facilities to the advantage of other groups that could come here.”
The planning process for OIMC starts in October, only a month after the previous one. Jennifer Williams acts as the chair of the OIMC Planning Committee and President of the Owasso Band Patrons, the parents association for the Owasso Bands program. She balances this year-long commitment with her other Band Patrons responsibilities, a full-time job and being a mother to two Pride of Owasso members and one graduated member.
“It gets a little stressful the week before [Invitational],” admitted Williams. She not only does this work for her children, it’s also her way of giving back to the Pride of Owasso for what the program did for her when she was a student at Owasso.
“I plan Invitational because I love it,” she states. “I’m president of Band Patrons because I believe in this organization and what it stands for and I know from personal experience … what being in band can do for kids.”
Clearly the OIMC has a positive effect on students. Students love the OIMC and volunteering at it, not just for what it does for them, but also for what it does for other bands.
Senior Brighton Clifton says his favorite thing about Invitational is “meeting people from other bands,” and fellow senior Mia Willman says her favorite part of Invitational is “talking to other band members and learning about their show … and their differences.”
Seniors Braden Zeder and Mason Heinrichs, who have both volunteered at the OIMC for four years, said that their favorite thing about volunteering is seeing and interacting with other bands.
The OIMC is a long and hard day that for some people lasts from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. It takes a lot of work from the Planning Committee, the band directors and the volunteers, but it’s clear that the 25 years of work is worth it. The dedicated people who plan OIMC have created an environment such that alumni gladly return to volunteer, head directors will come out of retirement and competition band students and staff will give up one of their few free Saturdays during competition season.
