The next night we met back at school at 5:00 with all our luggage. We
loaded everything onto the buses and left. During the three-hour drive to
Fresno we watched the first half of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets". Laura and I also laughed to ourselves at the attempts of Megan
the freshman guard girl to flirt with Nic.
We stopped somewhere along the way for dinner. My group went to McDonald's and then across the street to Starbucks. We left Starbucks with about a minute till we had to be back on the buses, so we sprinted to the crosswalk and made it just as the hand began to flash.
We got to the hotel around 9:30 and hung out for a while until bedtime. Laura and I were rooming with Brittany and Shelby again, so since they were taping rooms, we stood in the doorway of our room and laughed at all the people who were late to their rooms.
The next morning we got up, showered, ate breakfast downstairs in the VERY tiny dining room, and then loaded everything back onto the buses, since we were going home after champs were over. We managed to find a practice field and got in a solid two-hour rehearsal. It began with a "good morning lap" around the track. I swear, our instructors are delusional. Then we worked hard for a couple hours on large chunks and just solidifying everything. It was all good except for one rather violent run of the opener. We had these spins in the second and fourth sets, and Alex almost nailed me with his slide on one of those. Then in another set the guard wove through the low brass, who were backstriding. Kayla, a guard girl, brought her saber down right on my bell, causing my mouthpiece to fly up and hit me in the nose. Yeah, ouch. But overall, good rehearsal.
At noon we had lunch—pizza and coke in honor of Mr. Wilson's beloved analogy. As soon as we were done with lunch, we got back on our faithful buses and headed over to Clovis High School, where AA prelims and finals were being held. We changed into uniform and then found an empty parking lot to warm up. After basics, we moved to the lawn area and did a warm-up arc with the pit. We were playing our way through our show with a ton of energy. It was so exciting. Everyone was into the music and it sounded great. When we reached the huge impact in the closer, Mr. Wilson suddenly cut us off. "You guys have more in you?" he asked.
"YES!!" we all screamed.
"Good," he responded. "Give it to me on the field."
So we did. We got out on the field and performed. It was hands down our best performance ever. A common problem that a lot of bands had was the lack of focus during a daytime show. But that wasn't a problem for us, since a lot of our shows had been during the daylight hours. As we came off the field, I think we were all grinning. We gathered around Mr. Gunter and Mr. Wilson. "How'd you guys feel about that?" Wilson asked.
We all cheered. "I agree," said Mr. Gunter. "I think that was an awesome run. Very solid, very clean. You guys worked for that one. That will definitely get us to finals."
On that note, we headed over to have our picture taken, like every year after prelims. I've never understood why they do that, because everyone is all sweaty and gross after marching. But they did. We went back to the trailer and changed. While we were getting out of uniform, Mrs. Wiens came running up. "The scores are being posted as they go," she said. "I just checked, and you guys got a 91."
Well, this was of course unbelievable news. Valley Christian had never broken 90 before. And we were the sixth band from the end, so that would be hard to beat.
We double-filed back to the stadium to sit for awards. Once situated in the bleachers, we watched the procession of drum majors and guard captains, cheering when we saw Caitlyn, Jenny, and Krysta enter the field. The drum majors and captains from each of the 30 AA bands formed a huge arc on the field. And the awards began.
The announcer listed off all the bottom-end placements first. The top 13 bands would make finals.
"5th place...Aliso Niguel!"
"4th place...Live Oak!"
"3rd place...Bullard!"
"2nd place, with the caption for auxiliary, and a score of 86.92...Arroyo Grande!"
"And in 1st place, with the captions for general effect, music, visual, and percussion, with a score of 91.43...Valley Christian!"
Even though we more or less knew this placement because of our score, we all cheered excitedly anyway. We watched as Caitlyn, Jenny, and Krysta accepted our trophies, and then headed out of the stadium and back to our trailer.
When we got back, everyone gathered around Mr. Gunter, who announced, "You guys earned this," and unrolled a banner. We all craned our necks to read, "Western Band Association, Class AA Champions, 2003." And we all cheered crazily again.
But the day was not over.
We stopped somewhere along the way for dinner. My group went to McDonald's and then across the street to Starbucks. We left Starbucks with about a minute till we had to be back on the buses, so we sprinted to the crosswalk and made it just as the hand began to flash.
We got to the hotel around 9:30 and hung out for a while until bedtime. Laura and I were rooming with Brittany and Shelby again, so since they were taping rooms, we stood in the doorway of our room and laughed at all the people who were late to their rooms.
The next morning we got up, showered, ate breakfast downstairs in the VERY tiny dining room, and then loaded everything back onto the buses, since we were going home after champs were over. We managed to find a practice field and got in a solid two-hour rehearsal. It began with a "good morning lap" around the track. I swear, our instructors are delusional. Then we worked hard for a couple hours on large chunks and just solidifying everything. It was all good except for one rather violent run of the opener. We had these spins in the second and fourth sets, and Alex almost nailed me with his slide on one of those. Then in another set the guard wove through the low brass, who were backstriding. Kayla, a guard girl, brought her saber down right on my bell, causing my mouthpiece to fly up and hit me in the nose. Yeah, ouch. But overall, good rehearsal.
At noon we had lunch—pizza and coke in honor of Mr. Wilson's beloved analogy. As soon as we were done with lunch, we got back on our faithful buses and headed over to Clovis High School, where AA prelims and finals were being held. We changed into uniform and then found an empty parking lot to warm up. After basics, we moved to the lawn area and did a warm-up arc with the pit. We were playing our way through our show with a ton of energy. It was so exciting. Everyone was into the music and it sounded great. When we reached the huge impact in the closer, Mr. Wilson suddenly cut us off. "You guys have more in you?" he asked.
"YES!!" we all screamed.
"Good," he responded. "Give it to me on the field."
So we did. We got out on the field and performed. It was hands down our best performance ever. A common problem that a lot of bands had was the lack of focus during a daytime show. But that wasn't a problem for us, since a lot of our shows had been during the daylight hours. As we came off the field, I think we were all grinning. We gathered around Mr. Gunter and Mr. Wilson. "How'd you guys feel about that?" Wilson asked.
We all cheered. "I agree," said Mr. Gunter. "I think that was an awesome run. Very solid, very clean. You guys worked for that one. That will definitely get us to finals."
On that note, we headed over to have our picture taken, like every year after prelims. I've never understood why they do that, because everyone is all sweaty and gross after marching. But they did. We went back to the trailer and changed. While we were getting out of uniform, Mrs. Wiens came running up. "The scores are being posted as they go," she said. "I just checked, and you guys got a 91."
Well, this was of course unbelievable news. Valley Christian had never broken 90 before. And we were the sixth band from the end, so that would be hard to beat.
We double-filed back to the stadium to sit for awards. Once situated in the bleachers, we watched the procession of drum majors and guard captains, cheering when we saw Caitlyn, Jenny, and Krysta enter the field. The drum majors and captains from each of the 30 AA bands formed a huge arc on the field. And the awards began.
The announcer listed off all the bottom-end placements first. The top 13 bands would make finals.
"5th place...Aliso Niguel!"
"4th place...Live Oak!"
"3rd place...Bullard!"
"2nd place, with the caption for auxiliary, and a score of 86.92...Arroyo Grande!"
"And in 1st place, with the captions for general effect, music, visual, and percussion, with a score of 91.43...Valley Christian!"
Even though we more or less knew this placement because of our score, we all cheered excitedly anyway. We watched as Caitlyn, Jenny, and Krysta accepted our trophies, and then headed out of the stadium and back to our trailer.
When we got back, everyone gathered around Mr. Gunter, who announced, "You guys earned this," and unrolled a banner. We all craned our necks to read, "Western Band Association, Class AA Champions, 2003." And we all cheered crazily again.
But the day was not over.
