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Sharing a Marching Memory


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Hello everyone!

I am pretty sure a lot of these threads have been done through out the years, but considering the circumstances and frankly I had a pretty bad day... I felt it to be a great idea to start a thread about our favorite marching memories in DCI. These are pressing times and I think it a great idea to spread some amazing, hilarious, and awesome stories. I do apologize ahead of time if I am posting this in the wrong part of DCP, but considering the season has been cancelled I thought... well, why not post it here? Anyways, I am going to share my favorite marching memory from high school and I hope y'all can join in so we can all mask in the nostalgia train. 

 

My freshmen year in high school was awful in terms of marching. It was the worst in my schools history and our rivals just destroyed us! I remember after that season I told myself that  I would NOT march that poorly ever again! When my sophomore year approached I actually jogged and built up my stamina, practiced scales, and made sure I stayed hydrated (I have never fainted... ever). I remember my director said "Guys, we placed last in every show last season and got our first 2 rating at UIL in school history. I do not want that to happen again! It is up to YOU to make it better! Let's make it great!"... this got the band together and we were focused. We marched at a BOA show and we were hopeful to make finals, but we didn't sadly. We ended up going back to perform at a football again against Westfield... It was a great football game! Anyway, we didn't like that we did not perform at our best so we kept cleaning and adding to the show. When UIL came a long we were determined to get straight ones and wow those judges... and we did! It so happened to be a UIL State year so we qualified to perform at Area in Galena Park, Texas. So we kept cleaning and perfecting what we could, while our marching was noooooot so great, I admit that it wasn't the worst it's been and our music book was REALLY good... We cleaned up that music like no other! So that Saturday came along and we were focused. We. Wanted. To. Make. Finals! I remember getting on that bus and it was pretty silent for most of that trip. I did play Mario Kart on my DS lite with the guys, but when we were about 30 minutes away from the stadium we stopped playing and started to focus on what was about to happen. We got there, had an amazing warm up block, and we went to the gate. I remember watching the band performing in front of us, the crowd, and my general thoughts running through my head. After my mind settled a bit I said to everyone "Guys, look at the band performing in front of us and look at the crowd.... we are about to shock them". When we were allowed on the field we stood there for what felt like an eternity! Once we started there was obviously no turning back (obviously). The crowd was silent and observant, the opener was performed pretty darn good and we went on to the ballad. My older brother nailed his clarinet solo and our musical performance of that piece was beautifully done. Once the closer started I remember taking a breath and told myself "alright Hook'em give'em what you got. For your friends, family, and for pride of my school". We got the fans on their feet yelling and cheering for us a few times in that closer! At the end of the show we brushed our shoulders and that REALLY got the crowd going. I almost broke from attention to ball my eyes out! It was the best feeling on the planet! After marching off the field we ran to our buses with grins and pure joy! Our director grouped us up and said "What you all did today was amazing! I don't care if you make finals tonight because in my eyes you just did"!  After packing up we ran directly to the stadium to find a seat so we can hear who made finals. They announced in alphabetical order and to no surprise Klein High was in finals, but then the announcer said "Klein......(actually it was a pretty decent pause) Forest"!!!! We lost our minds! We did it :). This was actually the only time I have ever performed in finals... we placed 16th in marching, 3rd in music and finished 8th overall in prelims. It was the greatest marching moment of my life and this is actually my favorite show. The show is actually on youtube lol if you type in Klein Forest 2006 Afrofluence it will pop up and if you choose to watch I hope you ALL enjoy it! I also know I have shared this story a few times, but... hey it is my favorite! 

Now that being said, I know most have posted SOMETHING about donations, but I wanted to let y'all that I plan to donate to The Cavaliers, Santa Clara Vanguard, Phantom Regiment, The Cadets, and buy some merch as soon as things settle down. By God I want to see some shows next season! Anyway, I hope a few of y'all share some of your stories and I look forward to reading them! 

 

Splooie!  

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I was a 7th grader in marching band (yes we marched 7th graders), and we were come off our 4th state championship. We had beat our rival all year and took down some big names in our state, falling only to 3 bands all season. We won regionals and came into semis thinking we had it in the bag. Warm-up went per the usual, but when we got to the field something happened. We had gotten a little too cocky and sure of ourselves and the impending state title, and mother nature said "not today!" The wind picked up which hadn't happened during any performance that day before or after us, and being a smaller band of 66 members total, carried our sound with it. We placed 4th in prelims...

Music 1 - 8th

Music 2 - 7th

Visual 1 - 2nd

Visual 2 - 4th

Music Effect - 1st

Visual Effect - 2nd

Thankfully our state takes 4 in each class to finals, and we had made it in by half a point. We lost captions that we had been sweeping all year long against bands 3 times our size.

Finals starts and we go on last in our class at 7:45. Our director had reemed us for the 3 hours between semis and finals, saying how we deserved to be better to ourselves because we deserved better period. Our rival was one of the biggest names in Class A BOA currently, and were standing on the sidelines in the endzone to watch us as is common courtesy in our state for the band who performs right after you. After the entire crowd of around 14,000 people jumps to their feet on our horns down, they knew they were about to lose for the 2nd year in a row. 

Standing in finals retreat we all held hands, and offered hands to our rival but they refused, and the announcer pauses for what seems like a lifetime, which in reality was only around 30 seconds, before announcing 2nd place. We had came back from a 3.7 deficit to win our schools 5th state title and last. 

Our program hit hard times a few years back, but is back on the upswing and I couldn't be more proud of the current kids having made finals the last 3 years for the first time since 2007. If anyone wants to see a video of our last championshio, let me know and I'll send it through message to avoid copyrights.

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