The Jazzatonics of Greene County High School will compete in Class 3A at the Iowa Vocal Jazz Championships this coming Tuesday.

The ensemble didn’t qualify last year, which was Director David Heupel’s only year of the eight years of vocal jazz not making it to the jazz championships. Junior Hannah Yetter talks about her reaction to not making it last year and how this year is redemption for her and the group.

“It was kind of like a slap in the face, like ‘Whoa, we’re weren’t really expecting that.’ It made us work a lot harder this year and just really like dial in and realize that it’s not just going to be handed to you, you got to work really hard to get there again. We got there and it’s really exciting and I was super excited to hear that we made it again.”

Senior and four-year member Samantha Behne describes what it’s like to end her jazz choir career going back to the vocal jazz championships.

“It’s really awesome to get to end on this note. Jazz championships is so fun and it’s like, it’s not a sport but say you make it to state, that’s like the equivalent to it, it’s like a huge deal. And it’s awesome that we have just made it this far and we work so hard to get here and it’s finally come. It feels just like a huge reward, like Christmas Day.”

The public is invited to a Send-Off event as the Jazzatonics will perform their full set on Monday, March 25th at 2pm in the high school auditorium. It is free for anyone to come and support the jazz choir.