CGHS MT 1988 State Finals Performance

The Center Grove High School Marching Trojans in our 1988 State Finals performance. Arguably one of the biggest upsets in marching band history, losing to The Marching Giants of Ben Davis High School by 1/4 of a point.

[@CarthageDude13]

I'm from the Marian Catholic Marching Band and I absolutely loved this show! Great Job CG! :-)

[@jasonh7128]

@Darrell Sisson I don't think a high school can "avoid" contests. They follow a district/regional circuit to state. To add to indygirl's point, it's the 5th year in a row BD won state, so I'd say a CG win would have been an upset. And .25 points is a common win margin with the scoring they used; it wasn't uncommon to see .10 or .15 win margins. So I can see why you would say "arguably". But if you just wanted to comment on the great history of the CGMB and the good year they had in '88, I wouldn't disagree.

[@dlsisson1970]

So did Center Grove and Center Grove consistently got a higher score than Ben Davis. Ben Davis also avoided contests with tougher competition.

[@indygirl1438]

As a member of the State Championship winning Ben Davis MG from 1986-1988 I find your comment completely insulting and downright false Darrell. We won every single contest we entered all 3 years except for a loss to Marion Catholic at Soldier's Field in Chicago in 1987. We did not avoid Center Grove. We competed against C.G. almost every single contest all 3 years. We went through District and Regionals like Jason stated. There weren't multiple contests to go to like there are now. We completed against C.G. and Carmel week after week winning EVERY SINGLE TIME. We did win State 5 years straight including the 3 yrs I was there (86, 87, 88). Center Grove was our biggest competition at that time and your band was great also. But, again, we won every single competition against you the entire 3 yrs I was in high school. Look back at records because Center Grove did not do either of the things you are claiming.

[@indygirl1438]

John, BD beat Center Grove at every contest this year including District, Regionals and State. There was not an upset. The upset would have been in CG won State after BD winning all season long. That said, CG had an amazing show in 1988.