First Band Competition

By: Kristen Schulze

Marching season has now begun. Our show, Scheherezade, is coming along extremely well. Both veteran students and staff have noticed that we are way ahead of where we usually are this time in the season. Since we have the basic show up to performance level already, we can now work on perfecting it. Perhaps first place will we ours at least once this season. Last season, we did not come in higher than second to last place, so we hope this time we will be much more successful. New uniforms will be arriving in time for our next competition, so our clothes will look sharp as well.

The first competition for the LHS marching band was held in Sanford on Saturday, the 18th of September. The competition in Sanford did not happen as expected. After our Saturday morning rehearsal, we were pumped up and ready to compete. We were not able to, however, because one of our buses broke down on the way to Sanford. I happened to have been on the bus that broke down. Apparently, the brakes on the back wheel locked, so we had to pull over on the side of the highway. The colorguard decided to use this time to practice for the show. They were all in their uniforms which consist of tight leotards and cut away skirts. They drew many honks from passing cars as they twirled their flags on the side of the road.

The mechanic who came to fix our bus was quite amusing as well. An eccentric, backwoods Mainer looking kind of guy, he arrived in a pickup truck to help us out. Smoking a cigarette, he lowered himself under the still running diesel bus to check out the situation. Those of us who noticed took a weary step away from the bus. But, hey- he got it fixed and we were off again, arriving there two hours later than we should have been. The other bus, carrying most of the instrumentalists (as opposed to the colorguard), got to Sanford on time, but could not, of course, perform without the rest of us.

When we finally got there, we were not allowed to compete because we were so late that our division has already gone. We did, however, perform in "exhibition" and we did an excellent job. We were critiqued by the judges and, according to Mr. Libby, they complimented our show and acknowledged us as top competition for Dover, who swept our division that night. So- we're really looking forward to the next competition, since we have greater pride and assurance of ourselves. Perhaps we'll win ... if we get there on time.