Favorite Memories

So, I was watching all four of my shows from back in the day (2 years ago) from high school, and I started thinking about all of the memories I had, competitive and fun. And that got me wondering, what are some of your memories that you have from marching? If you are still marching, you can share recent memories of the good times that have happened. Here is a few of mine.

1. Winning the state championship after losing it a couple years earlier, and after a rough season that seemed too long with no end (bad things were happening)...long story short; it felt good, and I cried (not to sound like a wimp).

2. The bus ride to Atlanta, GA my freshmen year for BOA. The person behind me was cooking Totinos Pizza Rolls...under his body. Message me if you want to hear more, I want to keep this as appropriate as possible,

3. One time, there was a tropical storm that was hitting Florida, but since we still had school, we had practice. So we got to practice in 30-40mph gusts with heavy rainfall. By the end of the day, everyone needed new dot-books.

...btw, I realize this has been posted a couple times before, but it's always fun to reminisce!

1. Taking a "sweepstakes" trophy in my state, as our band received a superior rating in marching and concert band competition.

2. Capturing the percussion caption the year we moved up a division my first year as section leader.

3. Marching a Christmas parade in bitter cold, playing snare drum for the first time as a freshman.

1 one of my favorite moment was my small band made our sate finals comp and beat out three bands from 70-100 people larger than ours and the full retreat

2 our entire california trip their was so much bonding in the band and we came so much closer as a family

3 this one time after a rehersal our soloist was waling away and he was playinng his solo then i joined in after his solo then the entire band was playing the ballad while walking to the band room and it there was so much electricty in the air we knew we were going to do awesome the next day and the next day was my #1 fav momet

Freshman year - we went to PASIC up in Indy in 2009 and competed in the standstill competition. That 24-hour bus ride will be unforgettable, and so will the PASIC convention and competing.
Sophomore year - This was our State year. It was crazy performing in the Alamodome...such a huge stadium with much echo that was a little freaky at first. Getting to hear what we got (although it was a pretty bad score, but still!). Just being in a place sitting next to amazing Texas bands such as Marcus and others. Won't forget it! Also, we were in BOA Super Regionals that year as well in the Alamodome. That was awesome!
Junior year - PASIC again, getting to see the first huge amount of snow up there (haha I live in San Antonio!), BOA Super Regionals, playing our show in the rain at Westlake Competition...that was AMAZING!

Sorry for such a long post...hey, they're my great memories!

1. My freshman year (two school years ago), our band trip was to Corpus Christi, and I changed rooms because I was arguing with a guy in my room a lot. The room I move to was already full (as was the last one) and I had to sleep under the table!

2. My freshman year, we were having a sectional (I play trumpet) and at the end, my section leader wanted to run a victory lap... With our trumpet straight up in the air. We knew there were dark clouds during the sectional, but there was no lighting, do we didn't care. Well, during our victory lap, the largest lightning bonly struck just over the tree line (about 200 yards away) and the thunder shook the ground. We started running for cover and we looked behind us to see a huge wall of rain chasing us. :D so fun. It's now know as the "Lightning Sectional."

3. Last school year, our band trip was to Colorado, and we were on the way back to Texas. We got stuck in a snowstorm do bad that we had to find a hotel for an extra day while the snow melted. So much band bonding. :)

Making DCI finals.

My list so far: (I still have senior year to go through so there's bound to be something else later.)

1) Freshman year at state championships, our prelims run was cursed. The sound system went crazy and blasted static through the ballad and closer, the bass guitar player broke a string mid song, and all the craziness caused a lot of visual mistakes. We were devastated. We thought we were going to miss finals all together. But low and behold, we somehow made it through. Everyone got a second wind and we played the show of our lives that night at finals and won the state championship by 2 points. (Fun fact I found out a year or so later, our prelims score had us in first place too.)

2) Sophomore year. For our state finals run, all the pit decided to paint stars on our faces to match the drum major. We made it with face paint, but me and my partner in crime Cody forgot to get our star hair sprayed. By show time, both of us had sweated so much, our stars were running. It turned out to be a happy accident, because it gave us the look of a crying star that perfectly matched the ballad. (You can see the remnants in my profile pic.)

3) Junior year. I was singled out in a percussion judge tape because I was beating the daylights out of the impact drum. He spent almost half the tape bragging about how much energy I was putting into it.

1. 8th grade. It was my first year in marching band (I play saxophone) and it was one of the most memorable years for me because of one of the songs we played, Moondance by Van Morrison. Our theme was Looking Up (as in the night time sky).

2. Freshman year. We took a trip to Washington D.C. We got to take a tour of the monuments at night the first day we arrived.

3. Sophomore year. We got a new band director. He ended up taking us to the next stage after district (we got a gold) for the first time in a while. My school's marching band hadn't been that far in quite a while.

1. When our whole band took two school buses and drove an hour away to watch Phantom Regiment rehearse.

2. At our last football game two years ago, it was snowing so hard it was difficult to see.

3. That same year it rained so much every Friday night, our Director changed our show to include the song "I Can See Clearly Now, the Rain is Gone". Every time we played that song, it would just start pouring down rain!

My favorite memory comes from after I was done marching. It was the 2011 Indiana State finals, and my band was the champion for the first time in 15 years. They beat out national champion bands like Avon, Carmel, and Lawerence Central. My favorite moment was after the show in the parking lot of the Lucas Oil Stadium. Everyone in the band plus parents and alumni and fans were all celebrating by the truck. The current senior at the time of the baritones ran over to me and lifted me off the ground and then thanked me for everything I had ever done or taught him. It is probably the proudest moment of my life.

Marching in the 2006 Rose Parade would be my greatest marching memory from high school years (this was the parade where it rained, and it was on January 2nd). My absolute favorite part was that we got to have In-N-Out burgers when it was over.

Getting three standing ovations after region marching contest for our show this past year. It was dedicated to our band director who had passed away the previous year. Nothing else even came close to that.

Winning back to back state championships was awesome, but actually, coming third (by .2) to Marian Catholic and Broken Arrow at a super regional in 2008 was amazing.

Freshman Year-The director yelled at us for being like girls when we didn't marched in the rain. We got out there and started marching the whole show until lightning broke out and we started sprinting for our lives. Alot of people got run over.

Sophomore Year-I was heading to Vegas for a competition, I was completely surprised at how fun bowling was. I never did bowling and all of my friends and I had a great time there.