Marching band and Color Guard thunder over rain
Photo courtesy of Leslie Lopez
Bring the thunder | Assistant drum major senior Anthony Chae conducts the field show from the competition stands. “I was focused on trying to convey what I wanted the band to do at that moment,” Chae said. “It suddenly rained, so [the drum majors] had to make different plans and conduct in the bleachers, but it was a really cool experience.
November 2, 2022
Blue Thunder Marching Band and Color Guard placed fifth in the Colony Band Premier, their first competition this year, Saturday, Oct. 15.
Going against 28 other schools, marching band received second place in music and percussion while Color Guard placed fourth. Because of the rain, the performance was held inside the gym, and most visuals were cut out.
“It started raining pretty early in the day. Over here, it wasn’t too bad, but we didn’t know how bad it would be until we got to Ontario,” head drum major senior Mylyn Tayag said. “I just wanted to ensure that people were calming down and weren’t panicking because this doesn’t happen a lot or ever.”
Students made adjustments to their performance and removed their coats to avoid damaging their uniforms. Only a few Color Guard members were able to participate because of the limited space; marching band performed four movements and the beginning of movement five but skipped their running set, tarp visual and mark time.
“Our students did very well adapting and then making quick changes on the fly. They performed really well, even though it was just a stand still music performance,” marching band director Katelyn Takahashi said. “Obviously, they were expecting something else, but for the first competition, everybody was very focused.”
Marching band and color guard held band camp during the summer, and since the start of school, have been practicing seven hours a week. Before they left for the competition, they did one last practice, going over their entire show in chunks. Drum majors took attendance, made sure everyone knew what to do and checked the metronome and speaker. At the venue, marching band set up, then held warmups and reviewed certain parts of the show.
“Had the circumstances been different and we were not rained out, we would have executed much better, but I felt that we played very well,” clarinetist freshman Keegan Beecher said.
Marching band started to prepare right after for their second competition, which took place at Mt. Carmel High in San Diego, Saturday, Oct. 29. Marching band placed second in Division 6A and won the percussion and high auxiliary category.
“[Our performance] was great because it was one of our best runs and we gave it our all,” assistant drum major junior Markus Truong said.
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