It was early for a Saturday morning, and the distant sound of music could be heard coming from the school parking lot. With homecoming week so soon in the school year, the marching band got to start off the year with the homecoming parade.

  The marching band regularly performs field shows, but the parade is a whole endeavor on its own. “The parade can be very challenging for a band like ours because it is the only thing we do the entire season like it. We have to take time out of our regular field show preparation to prep for the parade itself,” said Kevin Larsen, director of bands. “The other thing that’s really challenging about the parade is the endurance factor. Our field show, typically, is fifteen minutes or less, under eight minutes of just music. For the parade, we’re marching for over thirty minutes without any breaks.”

  Despite how tough the preparation may be for this one-time event, the marching band worked hard to take part in overall school spirit. “It’s really important that we support the idea of homecoming and school spirit and making sure that even though it’s a lot of extra work, it’s easily worth while,” said Larsen.

  Aside from the one time parade preparation, the marching band has been practicing for their new season. The 

marching band’s new name and theme for their show is Mirror. “It has three musical movements. The first is a lot about reflection and symmetry, and then the second movement goes into distortion and tricks. The third movement goes back to reflecting the first movement,” said Stephanie Schubert, junior.

  An important competition is coming up on Sept. 20 for the marching band, where the HR community can get a chance to see the band performing Mirror.

Kaylee Kirkood, Editor in Chief