HOPKINSVILLE, KY (CHRISTIAN COUNTY NOW) – The new Christian County Tiger Band has debuted their fight song, which is a celebration of both Christian County and Hopkinsville High School legacies. Composed in part by a current student, Band Director Anthony Darnall shared how this song fuses together longstanding traditions for the new high school.

While they prepared for the bands from both schools to combine, there was the possibility of holding on to the previous HHS Tiger fight song, which is called Tiger Rag. Further into the process a realization allowed them to also embrace the Colonels fight song. Darnall said, “As we kind of got into it, we noticed that they could overlay over top of each other because they’re in the same key.”

At this point, Darnall decided to loop in upcoming junior Alijandro Valdez, who had previous experience in composing on his own time. Darnall added, “He made his first stab at it, and we’ve adjusted it and arranged and gone from there to bring it to life.”

They ended up combining both songs and adding new material to the arrangement, with additional collaboration efforts resulting in the percussion elements. Valdez told Christian County Now that he started composing in eighth grade and developed his own style over time. He plays a variety of woodwind instruments including flute, piccolo, oboe and clarinet.

“Whenever he came to me about helping with the fight song, that was like a dream come true. I was so happy to be able to do something not only for our band, but for the community too,” Valdez said. “Knowing that’s going to be part of the school forever is something that will stick with me.”

The band performed the song for the first time in front of an audience during the ribbon cutting of Christian County High School on Aug. 6, with a roaring response from attendees. They are set to perform again during the Meet the Tigers event ahead of football season.

The consolidation of CCHS and HHS has locked the award-winning marching bands together with over a hundred marching band students to take the field this fall with their 90s themed New Kids on the Block showcase.

| RELATED STORY: Years of work culminates in Christian County High School ribbon cutting as campus opens | PHOTOS