By Cara Martinez
Staff Writer
Mira Costa’s Marching Band won first place in its division and the Sweepstakes Tournament Award for high visual effect at the Royal Classic Field Tournament on Oct. 8 at Royal High School in Simi Valley.
Marching Band performed two-thirds of its show, “Trapped in Time.” The show began with a large cracked wooden clock in the center of the field and as the show progressed, band members slowly assembled parts of the clock by rolling them together.
“It felt amazing to get rewarded for weeks of intense training and hard work. We’re all so proud of ourselves,” junior Emily Angstreich said. “We want to continue to do our best in the future, no matter what award we end up with.”
photos: The marching band rehearses two days before their competition at Royal High School.
The band’s final score was 77.6, winning it first place in its division. In addition to winning first place in its division, the Marching Band won the Sweepstakes Tournament Award for high visual effects. It received the highest visual effects score out of all six divisions.
“It was so amazing to know that not only did we feel like we executed a very clean and powerful show at the tournament, but also that the adjudicators agreed with us,” Marching Band Drum Major Emily Chase said. “The awards themselves don’t matter, but it’s pretty cool that the judges liked what they saw.”
Five judges scored the competitors in four categories: visual performance, auxiliary, percussion and musical performance. Categories are scored out of a range from 1 to 100, and the four total scores are averaged out for a final score.
“We really put our all into the show,” Band President Sean Syed said. “The music sounded amazing, and our visual performance was much better than it had been in previous years.”
click to see the costa band website:
There are a total of six divisions in the tournament based on band sizes. Costa’s band is in the 4A division. According to Band Director Joel Carlson, the band was 0.1 points behind the winner of the overall Sweepstakes award.
“We were unsure about how it was going to go because this is our first year having this competition, and we weren’t acquainted with many of the schools that went,” Syed said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen, but we did decently well.”
The show featured a flute ballad solo from senior Elisse Friedman. Carlson picked Friedman for her musical abilities, Marching Band Drum Major Adrian Yu said.
“She has a breadth of knowledge in flute and musicality,” Yu said. “Elisse is also one of our most experienced members. All of these things combined make her deserving of the flute solo.”
As Friedman performed her solo, the band marched around her in slow motion, illustrating that it is trapped in time and restricted from moving, Friedman said. Furthermore, all members but Friedman moved around and bent down while Friedman was standing tall in the center of them. When the solo finished, the band returned to its traditional marching.
click to see royal high school band website:
“I thought my solo went pretty well,” Friedman said. “I really tried my hardest to focus on the moment and to hype myself up before the performance so that I was mentally ready for it.”
Since the Royal Classic Field Tournament, the Marching Band has been rehearsing the final portion of its show after school to prepare for upcoming tournaments and half-time shows at football games. The Marching Band rehearses for at least seven hours Monday through Friday after school. Occasionally, it holds rehearsathon practicees, where the group spends an entire day over the weekend rehearsing and perfecting its show.
“I am really looking forward to giving the audience what they want,” Carlson said. “At the tournament, the head judge actually came up to us afterwards and said he couldn’t wait to see what we do next.”
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