Newell-Fonda jazz band earns third at state championships, ends placement drought

Newell-Fonda’s jazz band climbed back onto the state podium in Ames, finishing third in Class 1A at the 2026 Iowa Jazz Championships and ending a placement drought that dated to 2015. IKM-Manning took first and Moravia second, putting the Mustangs among the top three small-school jazz bands in Iowa.

The finish carried extra weight because the championships, held every April in Ames, bring together 60 of the state’s finest high school jazz ensembles. The competition accepts 15 bands in each class and awards places through eighth, so Newell-Fonda’s third-place showing put the band near the top of a crowded field founded by Iowa jazz educators in 1976.

For director Andy Schertz, now in his fourth year leading Newell-Fonda, the result marked a breakthrough rather than another trip to state. The band had qualified for championships four years in a row, but until now it had not placed. The last time Newell-Fonda earned a trophy at the event was 2015, when it also finished third in Class 1A.

This year’s performance was built on more than the final ranking. The 23-student band earned three Outstanding Soloist awards, with Omi Smith recognized on flute and Will Voyles and Colton Lindgren honored on trumpet. A separate 2026 Triton Jazz Festival awards listing also included Smith and Lindgren among the soloists, underscoring the strength of the section work behind the overall finish.

Schertz said the rhythm section kept the groove moving through a set list that asked for range and discipline, from a funk chart to a ballad and an opening swing number that had to lock together from the first measures. That kind of precision is part of what separates a state contender from a band that merely reaches the stage.

The significance of a top-three finish runs even deeper at the Iowa Jazz Championships. The event’s board of directors is made up of the directors of the top three bands in each class from the previous year, a detail that shows how exclusive that company is. For the Newell-Fonda Community School District, the result restored the program to that level and gave Buena Vista County another statewide arts milestone to mark alongside its other school successes.