The marching band finally took the field again after a year-long pause due to COVID-19. The band’s first in-person meeting took place on March 9, 17 days before their first, and possibly last, performance of the year.

They had just over two weeks to plan and practice their standstill performance for the senior night football game on March 26. 

“The students typically have 120 hours of dedicated and unrestricted rehearsal time prior to the season’s debut performance,” said percussion instructor Mike Jones. “Conversely, tonight’s show has been pulled together in three weeks with roughly 20 hours of rehearsal time (in small groups, socially distanced) with the ensemble limited to five hours of actual playing time as an ensemble.”

Their performance contained a mashup of three songs.

“[The] performance will differ in that it will be standstill and about a third of the length of a typical competitive show. The students (especially the seniors) are thrilled and honored to even have the opportunity to work together and give it a go before the school year ends,” said Jones.

Due to COVID-19, the band had to adapt in several ways in order to play safely as an ensemble.

“We have to move to a whole different spot every 30 minutes because the air circulates,” said senior Yasmin Rivas. “We have to wear shields and put our instruments in body bags which is so uncomfortable, and we have to be 10 feet from each other when playing.”

No other performances have been planned yet; however, the directors are trying to plan a smaller, personal performance.

“As of right now, we plan to have a performance for our families, but that is it since everything is so strict when it comes to band only,” said Yasmin.

Despite this possibly being their only performance, many band members were grateful for the chance to be together again.

“I felt so unbelievably overwhelmed with love. One of the best experiences was coming back to my second family,” said senior Kendra Gomez.