The End of the Season

Saturday was our last marching band competition. May I just say one little thing for that? WO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really, as happy as I am that it is done for another year, I am sad, too. I love marching band so much. I love color guard. However, I don't love getting up early every morning for rehearsal, having rehearsal almost every afternoon, and giving up almost every single Friday night and Saturday for a bunch of high schoolers! I'm going to miss them.

So let me tell you about Saturday: First off, I slept in. Ches had to be at the university extra early so that the band could rehearse and they could set everything up (he is a grad assistant for the bands at the university, and it was their competition on Saturday), and Ches thought that I didn't have to be at HHS until long after 7 am. Nope. I had to be there at 7. A friend of mine was coming over at 6:45 to hang out with the kids and me all day. I didn't get in the shower until 6:20. Not a good start at all. Ches left at that time, and so it was up to me to hurry myself up and get the kids ready and everything. So I got there at 7:30, and the girls were so pissed at me. For good reason. I get so mad at them for being that late! And the worst part was that I had two of their flags from our sectional the day before. They left the flags with me so that no one would forget to bring them so early the next day. Oops.

Well, rehearsal went okay, then we loaded the bus and headed over to the university. We had some warm-up time, but I didn't want the girls to freak out and get tired too quickly, so I ran through the last song with them a few times (they just learned the last song Thursday morning, by the way), then I let them goof off. We did our guard dance (which is the "yo ho ho" dance that Captain Feathersword and his pirates do on the Wiggles. Don't ask.), gave each other a pep talk, did our circle (more pep talks and a prayer), then we decided to head to the band and run through a couple of sections. It was all going okay. I didn't expect too much, honestly. At the competition 2 weeks earlier the girls had rehearsed really well, but completely fell apart during performance. It was the worst thing I've ever seen, and I couldn't talk to the girls for about half an hour. When I did start talking to them again, I refused to talk about the show. I was either going to kill them or kill myself if I did.

So anyway, back to this Saturday...

The girls put their flags in the right places on the sidelines , and got out on the field with the band in the perfect amount of time. The drum major, Mikey, saluted, climbed on top of the podium (his "magic carpet"), and started the band. The music ("Arabian Nights") starts off very soft and slow, and the girls have a lyrical dance-like part with long, red ribbons. They kind of look like genies coming out of a bottle at first. It was going so well! The band was sounding great, the kids were in step.

The next section hits really big and loud from the band, and the girls switch suddenly to their first flags: yellow with orange, red, and gold lame' that looks like flames. It was awesome! They had some timing problems, but were mostly together. And may I say, band ROCKED! The entire show! They were so on! I have never heard this little group play so well! My girls performed really well (not as well as I would have liked, but it was definitely their best performance, and I was really pleased with them). "Arabian Nights" goes to a great drum break and on to "One Jump Ahead". Really energetic and exciting.

The second song starts with 2 of my girls running off field and lifting a giant banner to hide "Aladdin" (Mikey). The other two girls pick up chiffon, shaded flags that match their uniforms (blue with the one in blue, green with the one in green, and they other two have their matching flags -- orange and pink -- waiting for them). The band is playing "Prince Ali". When it gets to the section where the lyrics say "Are you gonna love this guy!" the banner comes down and reveals that Aladdin has turned into Prince Ali. The crowd went wild. Again, my girls performed well for this piece, and the band hasn't lost any of their energy. The end got a little sloppy for the guard, but they ended mostly together.

Our closer is called "Arabian Sunset" and is basically a reprise of "Arabian Nights". It starts off with a trombone solo, then a trumpet solo. Very mysterious sounding, and my captain had a flag solo. The other girls then join her with the same flag -- dark blues with dark purples; very pretty -- and they have some good stuff going on. Again, timing problems at first, but then they are good. It's obvious that this is fairly new work for them, but as the adjudicator said on the tape "good attempt". They all ended together, which was the most important part. The band hit every thing, and kept up with the tempo changes and everything! It was just plain awesome!

As the band marched off the field and the staff and boosters were helping to quickly get the pit instruments off the field and onto the trailer, a band in the stand yelled "Thanks for the ride!" I have to say, it was some ride. Magic carpet ride indeed! All of the staff was extrememly happy.

Because it is such a small band, we competed in the smallest division, and were the second band of 19 to perform that day. Finally, it was time for awards. The directors (and their staff members in most cases, ours included) met at one area and were given the packets with score sheets and adjudicator tapes. The drum majors, guard captains, and percussion section heads all lined up in front of the stands. Since we had the packets, we were able to see our scores and know what we got, but couldn't let the kids know. That killed me! I was so excited! The reason was...

HHS won FIRST PLACE band in the small division!!
The HHS color guard won the CAPTION AWARD for small division, meaning we won FIRST PLACE for that, as well!!

Our scores weren't the best, but we were competitive, and we even beat the scores of 2 bands in the medium division and one band in the large division. It was a very good day.

For color guard, we have a tradition that we each have to lick our trophy (don't ask me where this came from. They started it last year when we got first at a competition, and while I find it so disgsting, I do it anyway. Who can mess with tradition? Hee hee hee), so through the tears of four excited girls and one ecstatic coach, we each licked a different part of the trophy.

What a way to end the season.