By
KRYSTEL ROLLE, Guardian Staff Reporter, krystel@nasguard.com -
The coordinator of C.R. Walker's Senior High School Junkanoo program told The Guardian yesterday that he was not surprised when he learned that they had won the annual Junior Junkanoo parade. In fact, Oscar Dames added that he would have been more shocked if they had lost.
"It wasn't a surprise," he said. "We were prepared, we had everything in place and we know what it takes to win. We just won last year, so it was an easy win. The students were excited because they knew they had it," he said.
It was a sentiment that was reflected among most of the participants when The Guardian visited the school yesterday after the results of the parade were released shortly before 1 p.m.
With 3,223 points, C.R. Walker captured the senior high division, also winning Best Banner and Best Dance. The Best Music Award went to the second place finishers, Grand Bahama's Sir Jack Hayward High who racked up in 3,170 points.
C.C. Sweeting placed third with 2,710 points and Harbour Island All-age School placed fourth with 2,694 points. North Andros High School placed fifth with 2,476 points.
But the C.R. Walker Knights were not the only winners of the night.
In the Primary School division, Grand Bahama's Walter Parker Primary won Best Banner, Best Music and Best overall group, bringing in a total of 3,444 points. That was the highest score recorded in all divisions including the Senior High School division.
St. Thomas More Primary placed a close second with 3,173 points. Woodcock Primary got 2,784 points to hold down third place and Thelma Gibson placed fourth with 2,759 points.
Revere Academy brought in 2,480 points and Reality Edu-Care and Albury Sales scored 1,874 and 1,048 points respectively.
A.F. Adderley, the only Jr. High School to compete, won with 1,678 points. The group did not score as high as they could have because the school did not have a banner.
One-on-One emerged as the winner of the pre-school category with 1,124 points, with Aunt Jenny's placing second with 978 points.
The section leader of C.R. Walker's choreographed section, Dereka Ferguson, said she knew they had won since they started pasting their costumes in September.
"I wasn't surprised at all. We just had fun and the crowd was very into it," she said.
When asked whether she had gotten a chance to see any of the other competing groups Dereka said she did not need to see them, as she knew they would be no competition for her school.
"I mean it was nice for them to come to participate but I really didn't care to see them. We knew we would win because we put in a lot of work."
Daphny Petitfrere, who was the co-captian of the Flagets said she wasn't shocked either.
"Basically the flagets led the whole crowd. We started learning the routine in September and we were done by the end of October," she said, adding that they had a flawless routine.
Meanwhile, Oscar Dames said they started preparing for the parade in the summer and by September they had already worked out their theme and had all the basic patterns cut out.
"When school opened we started to actually build the costumes. We have students who could build and paste. They are well skilled," he said as they were storing the costumes for later use.
The parade began shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday night and finished sometime after 3 a.m.
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