Marching Band Wins Top Honors for “The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars”

In the final competition of the season, PLHS Marching Band receives a superior ranking for their new show.

Drum majors Meredith Koehler, Cassidy Welsh, and Hudson Carrico strike a pose during downtime at the Star Fest contest.

Holly Shin wakes up at 5:00 in the morning–6:00 if she’s pushing it– to get ready for school. She can’t forget her trumpet, either, lest she face the consequences once she arrives. Then she practices outside with the rest of the band until school starts, during the time known as “zero hour”.

However, all of the marching band’s hard work paid off at the final event of the season. Their show earned a superior score, the highest one possible. That’s what they scored last year with Pandora’s Box–but it was made all the more special by the fact that this year, they had decided to try something out of their comfort zone.

“I think everybody kind of knew that Pandora’s Box was a good show, but it wasn’t a great show,” Cassidy Welsh, a junior drum major, said. “We were like, ‘What can we do to take this show to the next level?’”

The next level, as it turns out, was a brand-new performance, called “The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars”. It was made up of four parts, with the first and second parts representing the sun, the third representing the moon, and the fourth representing the stars. This show was different in that it was very complex, not to mention tiring.

“In a lot of shows, there’s a lot of: you march, you stand and play for a bit, and then you march again, but a lot of our show this year was based on marching almost the entire time,” Meredith Koehler, a senior drum major, said. “Some of our songs and movements were way more intense than anything in the past.”

By all accounts, the band handled it skillfully and with enthusiasm. There are multiple reasons for their stellar improvement. For example, it could be because of their change in leadership, from drum majors to section leaders.

“We had pretty good people last year, but the leadership we had was just so strong this year, and they really showed their motivation,” Hudson Carrico, a junior drum major, said. “The band is a mirror of their leadership, and if we have strong, motivated leadership then we have a strong, motivated band.”
It likely also has to do with the friendly atmosphere, which facilitated communication and made band more fun.
“This year, we did a really good job at making people feel comfortable and that just created that sort of close bond,” Koehler said. 

The marching band was definitely shooting for the moon this season, but the hard work of band members like Shin led the band to success, letting them achieve their goal of going above and beyond.