Media release from Rome, GA City Schools:
Rome High School’s Grand Finale captured another first place finish on Saturday at the Peach State Invitational in Tift County. Not only did the show choir win its division, but it claimed the overall Grand Champion Trophy as well.
The group won Best Overall Effect, Best Vocals and Noah Beard took home Best Soloist in a show. Lathaen Day also won best soloist in the solo competition that ran concurrently with the show choir competition. The group topped Opelika High School and Tarpon Springs High School in the top division en route to winning Grand Champion.
“I’m super proud. They killed it. It was awesome. They went against some of the larger schools there. One particular school had over 40 singers. But we wanted to try to go against the best so that we could win the grand championship, and we did,” Grand Finale Director Dr. Cody Goss said. “This is three first place finishes in a row. So I can’t be any more proud of how they’re doing.”
Locals will get one last chance to see the award-winning show that has earned Grand Finale a spot in the Southeast Regional Show Choir Rankings compiled by HomeRoom Show Choir. Grand Finale and Grand Illusion will both perform their award-winning shows on Thursday, March 13 at the Rome City Auditorium.
“You don’t want to miss this show because it’s probably the most entertaining show we’ve ever done here. Everywhere we go, the crowd gets super involved in it. We’ve even had students from other schools ask us for our T-shirts,” Goss said.
Goss mentioned that Grand Finale chose to compete in a higher classification at Tift County. The group knew they were going up against larger show choirs but never faltered or backed down and took the top category win while earning grand champion.
“It was really awesome winning at Tifton because we knew we had to go against some schools that were larger than us. I think this is the third time Grand Finale has won a grand championship,” Goss said.
Grand Finale will now set its sights on the closeout show before hitting the road one final time to compete in the Brandon Show Choir Elite Competition in Brandon, Mississippi on Saturday, March 29.
“We’re going to Brandon and it’s an outdoor amphitheater venue. We’ve never been there before. It seats about 8,000 people. A lot of Mississippi schools will be there. We usually only see them about once a year so we’re really excited about that,” Goss said. “Some of the ones in our division are typically in the southern rankings in our size. So we’re going to get some good quality competition.”