With long days spent practicing and Friday nights spent roaring across the field, marching band won its way to State Marching Band Finals at Chino Hills High School last Saturday. These students were not only representing Carlsbad, but the county too, as they were recognized as the only school in San Diego competing at this event.

“Since we are one big group, we competed against the other top 12 bands from around Southern California, and each band performed its seven to eleven minute show,” sophomore Melissa Kay said.

Many hours of practice were put into a performance that only lasted a few minutes. But everyone’s dedication to excellence shined through and made the experience worth it.

“I have never been to championships before,” sophomore Kerianne Brennan said. “It truly is a lot different than our normal section because everyone is a lot more intense and focused about their performance.”

Last year, band just came up short of getting to this event. This year, they were ready to show their improvement.

“We were really excited because we didn’t make it to championships last year,” Kay said. “We worked really hard, so we could make it this year. We had practices two times a week to really focus on the music and the marching.”

Being with the most elite of Southern California bands, the competition did prove to be tough. Although Carlsbad did not come out on top overall, these students gave a performance to be proud of and an experience worth remembering.

“We ended up getting 9th out of the 12 bands that competed at the competition,” Brennan said.”We did very good, and I am really proud of us. But I feel we can improve for next year by scoring high in the beginning of the season, because those really add up.”

Now adding a plaque to its many accomplishments, Carlsbad marching band is now known as one of the best bands in Southern California.

“It felt really good to represent Carlsbad,” Brennan said.” We have never really had hard competition, and I felt that a lot of bands were blown away by our performance. I was really proud to represent San Diego.”