Regardless of the seasons? end, the marching band continues to bring in the last few musical titles at parades.
The band placed fourth overall and were marked first in Division 4 at the 41st annual Selma Rotary Marching Band Festival on Oct. 29. They competed in the largest division and marched against seven other bands, earning 84 points in the competition. Band has won the Selma Review in their division every year they have participated over the last 22 years.
?Placing fourth overall is a great achievement for us,? Paul McEntee, band director, said. ?We were up against these huge bands with about three-hundred people in them.?
Even though the band placed first in their division, some members admit that they could have preformed better musically. Such a performance might have resulted in them placing higher in the overall competition.
?We actually preformed well,? Adam Casuga, ?09, said, ?But I think we could have sounded a lot better.?
The intimidation of competing against larger bands has long since passed for the students. Every year, the band places high at each competition proving that size is irrelevant.
?We always beat the bigger bands because everybody in our marching band does their part,? McEntee said.
Of the few bands that defeat them, the members of the band never seems to give up on their drive to win. Brittany Lauber, ?08, rarely stresses over the competitiveness of marching against larger bands.
?I do not even get nervous when we march in parades,? Lauber said. ?We play ?Quest? all the time, and we are outside marching two or three times a week. Even when we are up against bigger bands, I never give it a second thought.?
The band will next compete on Nov. 12 at the Pismo Beach Band Review, the last parade of the season.
?I am hoping that we will at least place third place overall at Pismo,? McEntee said. ?There is only three other bands in our division, so I think we will conquer fairly easily. I want to aim high. I really think we can pull it off.?
For more information about the marching band, email McEntee at [email protected].
