District music: a chance for students to perform again

■ Editor’s note: See inside pages for stories on individual music contest results for Chase Co. Schools and Wauneta-Palisade.

    It was obvious to Jodie Liess that Friday’s District V (West) Music Contest at Chase County Schools was a success.
    As coordinator for the contest in Imperial this year, she wasn’t just talking about getting in all of the performances throughout the day, and keeping everything on track.
    It was the fact they could have a contest at all.
    “A lot of the performers were just happy to be able to perform—and with an audience,” Liess said.
    “It was a joy for a lot of people,” she said.
    Last April, COVID was rearing its ugly head, so there wasn’t only cancellation of the district music contest, basically all schools cancelled in-person education by that time, too.
    That meant no school activities or end-of-year competition of any kind, let alone physical classroom teaching.
    Liess said it was great this year just to be able to hold the contest. The turnout and support from the community and area schools was noticeable, she added.
    “There were a lot of people who were just happy they could come. We had a good variety of people here,” she added.
    Liess said the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA), which oversees the district music contests and sets rules, left the decision on wearing masks and other COVID-related restrictions up to the individual host schools.
    There were no COVID restrictions in place at CCS, she noted, but schools were informed they could make their own decisions whether they wanted their students to wear masks, as an example.
    The contest schedule, which placed competitions throughout the school, was kept on track, Liess said.
    “It really went well and smoothly,” she said.
    The schedule stayed on time pretty well, and reading the judges’ comments for her musical groups, Liess felt the judges “were all on the same page.”
    CCS will also serve as host for the District V (West) Music Contest in 2022, Liess noted.
    She hopes next year they’ll be able to return to the “food court” in the Longhorn gym, in which various organizations are invited to set up food booths.
    This year, the POM POMs organization at CCS served pizza and other limited snacks in the concession stand.
    Besides CCS, other schools competing here at district music were Wauneta-Palisade, Arapahoe, Cambridge, Dundy Co. Stratton, Eustis-Farnam, Hayes Center, Hitchcock Co., Maywood, McCook, Medicine Valley and Southwest.