Band wraps up the fall season

Renee Darling, Staff Writer

With their last competition complete, the band’s marching season is almost over and it’s time to transition to concert season. During marching season, they must stay after school every day to work on proper form, technique and clean the show. However, concert season allows them to play challenging music and focus on ensemble balance in more detail.

The started off the season placing 24th at BOA Katy and 14th at Lone Star Preview Marching Contest. At UIL Region 17 Marching Contest they got sweepstakes, receiving all 1s from the judges and advanced to the next phase, Area. The band placed 7th at Gulf Coast Classic Marching Contest and 13th at UIL Area Marching Contest. And finally at the biggest competition in the band’s history against 80 other bands, they placed 54th at BOA San Antonio.

October isn’t nicknamed Band-tober for no reason. They must attend every Friday football game, go home, nap, and return to school early in the morning every weekend, on top of 8 hours of rehearsal a week, but the hard work is always worth it. “My all-time favorite memory was finishing the last note at the Alamo Dome and seeing y’all burst into tears,” assistant director Mr. Gonzales said. “Just being able to share that moment with y’all, it was cool.” Mr. Williams, head director, said, “It was the best the band had performed since the school opened, the best playing, the best marching, the best overall show.”

And they plan to only go up from here. “Next year I’m looking forward to having a better show, having all of our students return, getting more freshman to join than ever before, and especially getting a bigger color guard,” Williams said.

But what comes next? As practices dwindle down and concert instruments are pulled out of the shadows, students can now spend more time preparing for their Region Band auditions and crack down on the tough music. They can also practice their concert music for their closest concert, the first being a Christmas concert.