Mount Union borough, Huntingdon borough, Alexandria borough

A Police Escort Home From Wildwood

In March 2015 the Huntingdon Daily News told readers about Darkhorse Percussion, an independent indoor percussion group led by the director of bands at Mount Union Area High School. Students at three high schools wanted to play indoor percussion and there was one program, so the group took players from Mount Union, Huntingdon Area and Southern Huntingdon County.

That spring Darkhorse finished second in the independent novice finals at the Atlantic Coast Championships in Wildwood, New Jersey. In 2016 it finished second again, and the paper reported a silver medal for the second year in a row.

Then came the gold. In May 2017 about 25 players from Mount Union, Huntingdon Area and Juniata Valley high schools won their class at Wildwood by five hundredths of a point, 87.40 to 87.35. When they came home that Sunday, local police and firefighters escorted them through three parades, in Mount Union, Huntingdon and Alexandria. They won again in 2018, with parades in the same three towns, and again in 2019, with a parade in Huntingdon.

On May 4, 2025, the group came back from Wildwood as independent novice champions, and the Daily News counted it as “its sixth championship in 10 years as a unit.” The results archive shows first place for Darkhorse at Wildwood in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024 and 2025, which matches that count. It finished second in 2023 and 2026.

The roster has crossed school lines, and the lists have changed. A February 2017 report said the players came from all four Huntingdon County school districts and ranged from fifth through 12th grade. The 2022 champions came from Mount Union Area, Juniata Valley and Williamsburg high schools. In 2024 the paper called it a cooperative program for Mount Union Area, Juniata Valley, Huntingdon Area and Williamsburg performers. Where it runs has changed too. In 2017 the paper wrote of “Dark Horse Percussion of Mount Union.” By March 2026 a student report in the same paper said it “runs at JVHS,” the Juniata Valley high school, with students from Juniata Valley, Huntingdon and Mount Union.

“There is no rivalry between these high school musicians,” the Mount Union director of bands told the paper in 2016. “When they play together, they make the entire county proud.”

Checked against the record. We checked this record two ways: against Huntingdon Daily News reports from 2015 to 2026, and against the Tournament of Bands results archive, reading its Wildwood results pages for the years named here. Most Daily News stories are for subscribers, and we read only the opening paragraphs anyone can see, so there may be more in them than we report. The paper gives a count of six championships but, in what we could read, does not name the years. Matching the count to the six first places in the archive is our own work. The 2024 win rests on the archive alone. The archive's pages for 2016 to 2019 use other contest names, while the paper calls the event the Atlantic Coast Championships. The paper spells the name both Darkhorse and Dark Horse. Still open: the year the group began, and when it began running at Juniata Valley.

Sources