Pushing through

From music videos to movies,   is often portrayed as the geeky group of misfits. A quick trip around campus reveals that much of what students know about these “band geeks” comes from those videos and movies, and a common perception is that all band members are “strange and weird, yet talented.”

Although members of Marching Band themselves acknowledge the stereotype, they do not let it bother them.

“Honestly, I don’t care,” junior Mitsumasa Kawano said. “[Marching Band members] are some of the nicest people in school.”

Neither are they deterred by the lack of attention.

“We’re never supposed to get attention – we’re the marching band,” freshman Reed Schrier said. “Nobody even knows we exist.”

But while they are often overshadowed at football games by the zoo or the cheerleaders, the band has shined at regional competitions. It took first place at Ayala High School, The Mission Viejo Band competition, and the Riverside Big Orange Classic and second at Trabuco Hills. In addition to placing second at the Western Band Association (WBA) Championships on Nov. 17, they took home awards for Best Music and Percussion. While the grand championship part of the competitions was rained out, members still expressed great pride in their accomplishments.

“Personally, I feel that the marching band performed the best that we could have,” junior Sydney Ropella said. “We were as prepared as we could be, under the time constraints we had. I am very proud of how far we have come.”

Their success is based on hours of practice and dedication.

“When I joined marching band, I thought it was going to be simple and easier,” Schrier said. “I really did not expect us to have put in one hundred hours by the first two weeks of school.”

Fifty-two of those hours came from a week-long, intensive band camp, where members spent time learning music and drill for the introduction to their show “Life as We Know It.” During the school year, the band practices every day of the school week, excluding Friday in which they instead perform at the halftime show of football games, and every Saturday, except on competition days which last even longer.

“Competition days are really long days because we have to arrive as early as six in the morning, and we can get back as late as 10 at night,” senior Holden Saunders said.

Despite the long hours, marching band remains an enthusiastic, positive group as a whole.

“We’re a bunch of fun people that don’t take anything seriously,” Shrier said.