The Olympic torch is heading to San Antonio.

The Mineola High School Sound of the Swarm marching band earned top honors at Saturday’s area marching contest in Nacogdoches to qualify for the state marching contest Wednesday, Nov. 8 at the Alamodome.

The theme for the three-time state champion band’s marching show is “Carry the torch,” featuring a large torch along with Olympic rings. The pre-show includes audio from famous Olympic moments.

Saturday’s results showed once again that Region 4 in Northeast Texas produces some of the best marching bands in the state in Class 3A.

The five state qualifiers from the Area C contest are all from Region 4.

Following Mineola are Redwater, Winnsboro, Atlanta and Queen City.

Winnsboro advanced to state for the first time two years ago under the direction of Jim Best, now Mineola’s director.

The same five also represented the area two years ago, the last time the 3A state contest was held, and all finished in the top seven in the state finals.

Mineola’s performance was selected as the best in both the preliminary and final rounds, with the five judges placing Mineola first on three of five cards in the prelims with two seconds, and four firsts and one second in the finals.

Mineola was also area champion last year, which was the furthest bands could advance, as well as winning the title in 2021 on the way to its third state crown.

The band chose not to compete in area in 2020, during the COVID pandemic.

The Proud Blue Band from Quitman High School advanced to Saturday’s finals and placed seventh, actually tied in points with sixth-place Orangefield.

The University Interscholastic League will resume annual marching band competitions for all classifications next year, after switching to a biannual contest 30 years ago, citing the expense of travel for large groups of students.

This will mark Mineola’s fifth straight trip to the state contest, with a third-place finish in 2015 followed by championships in 2017, 2019 and 2021 under director Chris Brannan.

There are 23 bands entered in the competition, with the first to perform at 9:30 a.m. Mineola performs last at 4 p.m., and the announcement of the finalists will be made at 4:30 following an exhibition by the University of Houston. Winnsboro marches at 10:45 a.m.

The finalists will perform from 7:15 to 9:30 p.m. with the awards announced at 10.

The band will give a public performance Sunday at 4 p.m. at Meredith Memorial Stadium.