I remember in the middle of the marching band season, Corey Futrell, one of the band directors,  sat the whole band down and told us, “You don’t have to be here, but you are and that puts you ahead of so many people. You have a different form of commitment.”

The speech connected to every student sitting in that room and even some of the staff. For the rest of the season, we got better as a band and our connection after that was amazing. I fell in love with marching band all over again.

Being a part of the marching band program is time consuming. And yes, it is pricey. The truth behind the dues and fees is that the money is for purchasing the rights to use the music and for obtaining the proper experts who can teach different instruments their parts and techniques. This makes participants better players and marchers. The time that it takes is required to practice intricate show choreography and music. Band members are around other people so much that they stop being just classmates and become best friends and even family.  

Recently, the band competed Grand Nationals. It is the highest level of competition in high school marching band. The competition is based at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis., Indiana. The stadium was built for marching band competitions. The last time our school went was in 2014 with the show titled Final Piece. This year was our return to the scene and we competed with some of the best bands to this day. Our show’s name was What If? It featured a story of chasing your dreams. Overall, we made it to semifinals out of 109 bands who participated. Imagine almost 10,800 marching band members in one area. Overall, the competition was amazing.

Many marching band members move on to concert season. Look for position tryouts in May, practices and camps over the summer, and then daily practice when school resumes to get ready for the season.