Hueneme High Band Wins Top Rating at Competition

OXNARD —  The Hueneme High School band has captured a unanimous superior rating in ensemble competition at a regional music festival at Cal State San Bernardino.

“My music students gave a phenomenal performance,” said Mike Doty, music director since 1970. “They’ve never played better.”

Doty said the band earned the right to compete in the invitation-only regional festival May 15--one of three held each year--by garnering a superior rating during a district music competition at Channel Islands High School in April. Among 24 bands that competed in San Bernardino, three emerged with the unanimous superior rating.

Hueneme band members are still not sure what their accomplishment means, Doty said.

“I explained to them that [few] bands achieve this at a regional festival, but that went right over their heads,” Doty said. “This is an accomplishment of Olympian heights. They have no idea what they have accomplished.”

Valerie Carey, 17, a senior who plays the flute, said portions of the competition were difficult, but in the end their mistakes were overcome by successes.

“We played our hearts out,” Valerie said. “We still had mistakes, but we were good enough on everything else that the mistakes didn’t cost us much.”

Tiana Valdez, a senior, said she was much more relaxed and confident in competition as an upperclassman than she had been in previous years.

“When I was a freshman, I was a little bit intimidated, but this year it was like a regular festival,” said Valdez, 18.

Doty said the last time Hueneme High earned a superior rating, the judges were not unanimous.

“This year, we had three concert judges and one sight-reading judge, and they were unanimous,” he said. “They didn’t confer. They made their decision independent of one another.”