<p>For most of the season, it felt like one thing after another was holding back the Franklin Community High School show choir, Sensations.</p><p>The show choir lost its second director in October. Multiple members decided to drop out of the choir during the first semester. A reclassification forced them to compete against much larger schools. At a show choir invitational last week, they didn’t even score high enough to earn a spot in the invitational’s finals.</p><p>The expectation for the Indiana State School Music Association state show choir finals over the weekend were low. So the 62 members of Sensations decided they would have fun and hoped they would not come in last when they performed for the final time this season.</p><p>"Everyone was counting us out," said director Michael Hummel.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>On Saturday, the defied the odds and were named the state champions in the large school division at the ISSMSA state finals. The same choir won a state championship last year too– in the small school division. They also snagged a caption award for best vocals.</p><p>The school’s other choir that competed, Heritage Singers, placed fourth in their division.</p><p>"They were relentless, trying to do their best," Hummel said.</p><p>The entire season had been a challenge for Sensations. They lost their second director in October, leaving Hummel to do the job of two people for 10 weeks until a second director was hired.</p><p>Multiple members dropped out in the first semester, leaving new participants to learn an almost 20-minute routine in half the amount of time when they joined in January. </p><p>And the Indiana State School Music Association reclassified their school in the show choir division based on student enrollment, knocking them up to compete with the largest schools in the state. The association defines a small school as having 1,559 students, while Franklin was counted to have 1,660.</p><p>Most of the students were pessimistic heading into the state finals. Fourth was the best they had hoped for under the circumstances of their season and most were just praying not to be last, Belma Duheric, a sophomore said.</p><p>"We didn’t know what the outcome would be, so we just gave it our best," she said.</p><p>The members of Sensations heard the other show choirs have their placings announced one by one. After fourth place was announced and they were named the best vocalists in the competition, Sensations thought they may have had a shot at winning, said Jasmyn Savage, a senior show choir member.</p><p>"We worked through our circumstances," she said.</p><p>Hummel knew going into the state finals that he had a solid show choir that could handle the vocal demands. But, moving up a division was tough. Franklin was competing against schools they had never out-scored and had two- and three-times the student population to pull talent from, he said.</p><p>A lot of the new show choir members that joined this year had never danced in any organized manner. And this year’s Sensations is young, boasting a large class of freshmen competing at the state level for the first time, Hummel said.</p><p>Still, he knew the freshmen were talented and that the entire choir had an energy about them that could take them to a top spot, he said.</p><p>"They do not act like freshmen and they do not perform like freshmen," Hummel said.</p><p>Hummel also worked to orchestrate a performance that would showcase the range of voices, with the girls belting out ballads, dancing and singing to pop and show tunes. The show also has a section with one of choir member rapping.</p><p>The win for Sensations caps off nearly an entire year of work. Auditions for the next year’s show choir are in late winter, finishing up just after state finals, Hummel said.</p><p>Show choir students learn at least one number during the summer and spend four classes a week and two after school rehearsals a week throughout the year working on their show, Savage said.</p><p>Class time is spent polishing the vocals of the songs they perform. After school rehearsals have choreography added. They usually have their entire show memorized by January, when competitions starts.</p><p>By that time, directors and captains are concentrating on details that can make the show better, such as hand angles and foot placement, Savage said.</p><p>When state finals rolls around, they are just a few months short of having actively worked on the show for an entire year.</p><p>"It is a lot of effort and we all work hard during rehearsals," sophomore Emilee Wilson said.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="At a glance" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Show choirs from Center Grove High School also competed over the weekend.</p><p>Both varsity show choirs, Sound System and The Debtones were named grand champions at the Premier Choice Show Choir Invitational at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. They also earned caption awards for best vocals.</p><p>Subi Pandit was named Best Male Soloist in a Show, while Pandit and Alayna Whitis won the duet competition.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
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