By Molly Troxclair, Entertainment Editor
The marching band and color guard will be attending a big regional competition this Saturday, the Bands of America (BOA) Regional at San Jose State.
The band and guard attended this competition for the first time last year, when it was held at American Canyon High School near Vallejo. They got fourth place out of ten last year, which came as a surprise to some of their competitors. This year, they are hoping to come back and do better.
BOA is a lot different from what the band is used to. For instance, their warm up is much shorter, and, instead of performing once, they perform twice in one day.
Rafael H., a junior who plays the bass drum, had a lot to say about these differences. “It’s a lot more different, but the break in between isn’t that bad.” He’s talking about the couple hour break they get in between their first and second performance. In this time, they get fed by the band boosters, parents and alumni who volunteer their time at practices at shows.
“It’s a whole different atmosphere. I think, with practice, we can get a higher placing. The scoring is heavily based upon the winds [trumpets, saxophones, flutes, etc.], so it’s odd.”
As for the warm up, he says, “The warm up is weird because we can’t use a metronome, because it’s a distraction to the other bands. The warm up area is so small, too!!” In their warm up area, they are surrounded by up to 15 other groups, which all have up to 200 students.
Last year, they were 5 points short of first, and they are trying to redeem themselves this year.
Juan P., a clarinetist who is a junior talked a lot about last year’s experience. “[Last year] was just a normal run through, and was pretty solid. The first performance was better than the second for sure, though.”
About warm up, he agreed with Rafael, “It was somewhat distracting, but I could handle it, and so could most everyone else.”
On their 4th place ranking, he said, “The placement was surprising, but nothing totally traumatic or something. I think we can improve upon that and do better this year.”
The best of luck goes out to our marching band and guard, and we know they will make us proud no matter what!