They’re champions at marching forward, backward, diagonally and playing their instruments at the same time.

But the Lawrence High School Marching Lions showed another skill Saturday: They can do it in the dark and still emerge as champions.

Just as the LHS Lions were taking the field at the Neewollah Festival band competition Saturday night in Independence, Kan., the stadium lights went off.

Mike Jones, LHS band director, said the organizers and judges asked him if his 165-member marching band would like to wait while they restored the lights.

“It was still twilight, so we could still see,” Jones said. “I just told them that we had marched in much worse conditions and we would go ahead.”

The lights started coming up on their last selection and were all on by the time it was finished.

“It was a good effect for us,” Jones said.

After the performance, the LHS band was named Grand Champion of the Neewollah Marching Competition. The band also placed Best of 6A Class and received a ranking of 1 in the Neewollah Festival Parade.