Marching Band prepares for its season

By Cameron Ibrahim
Staff Writer

Following the success at the South Bay Invitational Field Tournament at West High School, the Mira Costa Marching Band will perform on Saturday in the Baldwin Park High School Field Show Tournament.

Costa will compete against marching bands from across Southern California. The Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association will judge the performances in the categories of percussion, band and auxiliary.

“We are pressing forward to learn more of the show,” Costa Band Director Joel Carlson said. “We have a lot to work on, but it was great to watch the judges react to the hard work of the students at the last tournament.”

In addition, SCSBOA judges will award the High Caption Awards, which honor the group with the highest score in its own division. They will also be giving sweepstakes awards in the categories of auxiliary, percussion and band to bands who score the highest across multiple divisions.

“We are just going to have to perform as well as we possibly can,” Carlson said. “Whether we set the standard for the evening or not, it’s going to be interesting.”

The band has been rehearsing four times a week, in addition to some weekend practices, performances at football games and other school concerts.

“We are really focusing back on doing the best we can rather than on our scores,” junior Lauren Gulland said. “We are aiming for a personal best rather than to just beat the other teams.”

In its previous performance at the South Bay Invitational Tournament, Costa’s marching band scored a 65.5 in percussion, a 76.4 in Band and a 75 in auxiliary. This score earned them second place in the first two categories and first place in auxilary.

“Even though we didn’t win sweepstakes this year at the South Bay Invitational, we ranked among some excellent teams,” Gulland said. “We did well, especially for the first tournament of the season. We’re hoping to do better this weekend.”