Since the very beginning of the school year, marching band has been working to their fullest, even if they aren’t currently active anymore. Most of their work was during the football games, and while possibly unnoticed, they also had their own evaluations, and some other events they helped in.

Starting with the start of the year, or actually even before then, they were practicing in the summer. They practiced and got ready for everything they had coming. Talking with one of the marching band members, Gabriel Sisk, during their competitions, gave me a huge insight into what they were doing. From the time I talked with him, they had already done their sets and were only improving from there, “We’ve completed a few things, we’ve just got done doing our first visuals, and we’ve finished our sets, but we’re still pretty early in the season and  still improving.”

While I didn’t truly keep up to date much with their games and such, I did occasionally ask around to see how they were doing, “We’re doing absolutely great right now! We’ve gotten second overall, but best percussion and music,” said Sean when questioned about how he thought they were doing. Even though everyone I talked to said different things, they all had a positive attitude, and were very upbeat when talking about marching band’s performance.

The members of marching band practiced one main set over the course of the season. Their theme was “Dreams of Persia,” It had three pieces, The Bazaar, Flying Carpets, and Snake Charmer. These pieces were played at their competitions, and at the football games, now I couldn’t get the exact scores for their competitions, except for the second one, where they got best percussion, and best music, giving them 2nd place.

I went on to question a few more people about how they felt about being in marching band, and if it was worth joining, “Honestly, if you don’t like walking around a field for a few hours, I don’t suggest it. But on the contrary, it’s been really fun to be in, from the sets and performances, I really enjoy doing it, [it] gives me something to look forward to every now and then,” Ned George explained.

Since the new year, and the winter, the marching band season has officially ended (at least to my knowledge), yet they had one important event, the Manassas Christmas Parade. This took place in Old Town. Ned George said, “Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, yet I was cold and very tired, my feet hurt a considerable amount by the time we ended it, but it was a enjoyable experience.” He went on to talk about how he had helped set up the tree-lighting the night before.