By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
WEBB CITY, Mo. — Ahnika Littlefield said she wasn’t too upset that another winter snow put the freeze on her travel plans for Friday.
Littlefield and her fellow members of the eighth-grade wind ensemble at Webb City Junior High were supposed to perform Friday at the Missouri Music Educators’ Association state convention at Lake of the Ozarks. But wintry weather canceled classes as well as the group’s trip.
Given the situations, Webb City school administrators organized an impromptu performance Friday afternoon for the group at the Barton Auditorium at Webb City High School.
“I’m kind of glad because I didn’t want to get back too late, and I didn’t want to risk getting hurt,” said Littlefield, a French horn player. “Nobody got hurt and we still got to perform.”
Her mother Lisa Gurley also said she was proud of her daughter and the work the group had put in to prepare for the state convention. Webb City’s eighth-graders were the only non-high school invitees to the state convention.
“I’m not disappointed that they didn’t go because of the snow,” she said. “But I’m sad all their work didn’t pay off the way they wanted it to.”
Michael Oglesby, the ensemble’s director, said the invitation to perform at the state convention was akin to winning a state championship in athletics.
“Musically, this is equivalent to winning a state title in sports,” he said. “We were the only junior high school program selected in the state of Missouri.”
Oglesby said he and several of the students initially reacted with disappointment when administrators made the decision to cancel the trip Friday morning.
“For about 15 minutes, I was speechless,” he said. “I was upset for the amount of work the students put into it. There were countless hours practicing, numerous early morning, evening rehearsals. They were playing so well.”
Webb City Junior High Principal Trey Moeller said the decision came down to one for student safety.
“With the travel conditions, we just didn’t want to take a risk,” he said.
Even though a final decision not to travel was not made until Friday, Moeller said several Webb City administrators had talked about contingency plans like the local concert to give the students an opportunity to perform.
“We wanted to do this to let the kids know we were still proud of them and all the hard work they have put in to accomplish this,” he said.
125 turn out
The students played to a crowd of about 125 of their parents and friends.
