As the 2018 Spartan Marching Band took the field for one last time last Friday, October 19, the graduating class of 2019 took one final breath on the field.  For senior night on Friday, the senior class could easily be spotted in Halloween costumes amongst a sea of plumes and uniforms for the underclassmen.

After 4 successful games prior to Friday, the marching band is ready to hang up the sashes for the season. The seniors were able to vote on the song selections as well as writing the marching drill for the band. They were also in charge of teaching the drill they wrote to the rest of the band.

Senior Flute section leader, Julia Hillman, says, “it was crazy trying to put together the drill and music in few days, but it was so much fun.” Hillman helped to write drill for part of the show as well as teach it to the band during rehearsal.

To bring a more personalized element that would make them stand out, the seniors voted to wear Halloween costumes while the rest of the band wore the traditional marching uniform. As the seniors took the field, creative costumes ranging from Disney princesses to large food items could be seen all around.

There is no doubt it has been a successful season for the Spartan Marching Band. That being said, it has not come without its challenges. For the final game, the students voted to play The Incredibles theme song, Africa by Toto, and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. The band had only one week to learn the music and put together a drill for the show.

With this wide array of difficult music and only one week to put it together, the time crunch can be very stressful, says director Robb Medd.

Senior night is different than the others. According to Medd, “It’s hard trying to pick a balance between working on music and working on drill. Luckily, the drill for senior show is usually pretty easy with only a few moves. I’ve noticed students have been practicing on their own and really taking the initiative upon themselves to get their music learned.”

Before taking the field, the 306 members of the marching band squeezed into the band room to hear all the seniors give a ‘senior speech’. With this speech, seniors have the opportunity to say their goodbye to the whole marching band and give a few words of wisdom to younger students.

There is no doubt the seniors felt some bittersweet emotions as the curtain closed on their last high school marching band performance. Many have posted photos from that night on social media with captions such as, “hardest goodbye” and “Thank you for the best for years of my life”.

Now that the band has closed the marching portion of the year, they look forward to concert band for the rest of the school year where they will have much more than one week to put together a show!