Director Spence Salter’s Hutto Middle School fifth and sixth grade band members and director Joy Grimsley’s Bainbridge Middle School seventh and eighth grade band members were honored Tuesday, May 4.

The occasion was the annual Decatur County School System band proogram ‘s spring concert and awards night at the new Bainbridge High School gymnasium.

Alto saxaphone player Taylor Bush won the prestigious Nick Johnson Award, the highest honor a Hutto band member can receive. The award is named for a former Hutto High School and Hutto Middle School band director who tragically lost his life in an automobile accident.

Hutto Directors Awards were won by percussionists Oldinaka Obinwanne and Josef Drinkard.

The John M. Long Award and Herbert L. Clark Award, the two most prestigious awards a Bainbridge Middle School band member can receive, were won by flute players Katie Shelton and Kelsey Andrews.

The John M. Long Award, is one of the highest honors a musician in the Decatur County School System band program can receive.

It is named for the dean of the school of fine arts, director of bands and distinguished professor of music emeritus at Troy University. It goes annually to a young musician who displays leadership, dependability, loyalty, cooperation musicianship and other qualities of conduct which school instrumental music programs strive to impart.

Honored as outstanding seventh grade musicians were tuba player Malasia Taylor and trombone player Trey Walker and honored as outstanding eighth grade musicians were oboe player Jill Overman and trumpet player Jacob Thorn.

Bainbridge Middle School Directors Awards went to flute player Andrea Clenney and clarinet player Autumn Chestnut.