The 47 annual ISSMA Marching Band Competition started off Saturday, Oct. 5, at SHS and ended with SHS winning gold for the last competition of their season.

According to SHS marching band members, it wasn’t that simple to prepare. The band had been relentlessly practicing up to twice a week for two and a half hours in order to prepare for the upcoming competition. According to band teacher David Copeland, every student needed the motivation and determination to get gold in the competition. One of these students is junior Julia Dye, a tenor saxophone and drum major.

“For any competition, we start with lots and lots of practice.” Dye said. 

With the season for the marching band has come to an end, the band members have placed severe determination into competing this season. This made it more stressful to the band members and gave the members a push to do their best for the competition. 

“This was our last competition so it was a give it everything you’ve got kind of feeling,” Dye said. “We really had nothing to lose so we left it all on the field.” 

 Even with the pressure of performing, the band made sure to have fun before the competition to lessen the stress among the group. Both the band as a group and the individual players found ways to destress from the tedious practices in similar ways. According to freshman trumpet player Owen Hodges, the marching band likes to have fun during the day of the competition as well as remain professional when need be. 

As for separate SHS marching band students, many of them found listening to music before hand helped calm their nerves for the competition. 

“I actually have this really stupid playlist that I’ll play with like Lizzo on it just to get positive about things (relating to the competition).” Hodges said.

Along with practices, some members had to memorize more than one song part. Students like sophomore trumpet player Madison Neumen had to know multiple parts due to being a backup soloist. 

“I practiced a lot making sure I had my pieces memorized,” Neuman said. “I was also the back up soloist if Andrew couldn’t play it, so I also had to make sure I had that fully memorized just in case.” 

In the end the marching band won gold at the event due to their hard work.

 “We were even more proud that we received extra recognition for our music and marching categories,” Copeland said.  

“We received “with distinction” which means our scores were perfect or near-perfect in those categories.” Copeland said after explaining that the band had won.

“It was like a sense of all those hours I put into that show and the amount of times I played all three pieces was finally worth it.” Hodges said.