When you think about blood, sweat, tears and hours out in the August heat around here, you automatically think “high school football season.” But there’s another group at QISD that has also been putting in extra time and effort since August—the Proud Blue Band. Their journey began on a hot parking lot in early August—their “field.” For three weeks, these 56 students sweat, fought dehydration, memorized their music, and learned their marching routine.
While all that work in the heat was not fun, the band students appreciated what they learned during that time. “It started getting us ready for the season. The days were long and we put in a lot of work—but we are the producers of this product,” said flag core member Emily Roman.
That “product” is turning out well for the Proud Blue Band this year. The show is entitled “Gods of Olympus” and features three movements named after Greek gods Zeus, Aphrodite and Poseidon. The band is already enjoying success with their show, placing sixth at the Pleasant Grove invitational competition on September 25th. They also placed fourth at the Four States Invitational marching contest on October 2nd in Texarkana. For the invitational marching contests, there have been different judges for band, percussion, and color guard. Each band earned up to 100 points in these competitions.
Proud Blue Band members were especially excited about their fourth place finish at Four States on October 2nd. Band Director Michael Barron had already seen the schedule and knew what his band was capable of, so he wasn’t completely surprised when their name was called over the loudspeaker. Barron said that “while the staff didn’t feel like we did our very best, our scores were significantly high.” Barron explained that they are their own worst critics, and knew the kids could do the job. The directors were just concerned because there had been some nervous mistakes during the preliminary judging. “Once we got into the finals, we made the corrections we needed to make, and we had a much better finals run,” Barron continued.
On Monday, October 11th, the band participated in the Mineola Marching Festival. They earned 1st Division ratings in all four areas that were rated: band, percussion, drum major and color guard. Mr. Barron stated, “I feel good about the show we did in Mineola.” He then added, “We know, as an ensemble, that we need to make corrections. But we try to strive for excellence in every performance.” Barron was excited and proud of his students stating, “they have been working so hard this year!”
If it sounds like they are participating in a lot of contests—they are! Barron said that he asked how many contests he was allowed to take the band to when he first started here. “We want to compete,” Barron said. “A lot of people outside the band world just think we’re just halftime entertainment,” Barron continued. “But our kids are like basketball players; they think about the competition behind it—so we compete a lot,” added Barron.
When asked about her favorite part of performing and competing, Senior Sara Cross said “Just playing because I feel like when I do compete, I don’t really think about anything else, and it’s like I click ‘pause’ on everything.”
The Proud Blue Band members definitely enjoy performing at halftime at football games too, though. They especially enjoy cheering the football team on to victory this year. Barron added that “…in a weird way, I think that the band’s excitement to support the football team--who has been doing better this year--is reflecting back into the band’s own performance." Barron said that the band’s energy towards the football team has made the band students get “better at playing their instruments indirectly.” He explained that the energy and excitement they’re playing with is an indirect effect of the energy and excitement of each football game itself.
The future of the Proud Blue Band holds plenty of excitement too. Two years ago, the band placed 16th at their Area contest. The band’s goal is to be better each year, so this year, they plan to place 15th or better. According to Assistant Band Director Darren Castilaw, the band may have help in the future from an upcoming large class of 6th graders. Castilaw stated that they currently have all of the sixth-grade enrolled in the beginner band. Even with normal attrition, the band should “at least double in size over the next couple of years,” an excited Castilaw stated.
The Proud Blue Band will next head to the Prairiland Marching Invitational on October 16th, before heading to the UIL Regional Marching Contest on Tuesday, October 19th in Mt. Pleasant. When asked about the Regional Marching contest, Assistant Band Director Chace LeBlanc said, “If the band keeps bringing this same level of focus and attention to detail through the next couple of weeks, then I think we have a strong chance of surprising people and advancing to the area finals.” LeBlanc also added that, “One of the main ideas I’m hoping the band members keep in mind is simply this: How you do anything is how you do everything.” LeBlanc believes that practice is the key to next week’s competition. LeBlanc said, “the biggest hurdle to overcome is achieving consistency at a high level, which can only be fixed with time and repetition.”
Good luck to our band this Saturday and next week!