The competition season for Marching Bands is just about to start, and it’s safe to assume the Verrado Marching Band has a lot on its plate. During competition season, different marching bands perform and compete against one another in a battle to prove who can march and play the best.
The band’s first competition is on Saturday, September 30th, hosted at Verrado High School. This competition is called the Viper Thunder Classic, VTC for short, and will have many familiar schools playing. Visitors are welcome and encouraged.
The 70-member band is working on a show called “Arabian Nights.” The band is very excited to perform this due to its theme and music.
Tracy Meldrum, the band director, explains “In the show we wanted to encapsulate the culture we are depicting. We have a princess in our show, but when the drumline members kidnap her, the color guard and the band have to rescue the stolen princess, bringing her back to the castle.”
The band puts in a lot of effort to make sure their performances are memorable and well executed, especially for competitions, considering they are going up against other high school bands.
It’s important to support the band due to the amount of time, effort, and energy they put into all of their performances. Due to the amount of time they spend working on each performance, those in the band form a close bond with each other.
Bryan Weaver, high brass section leader for the band states “It’s not just a friend group it’s more
of a family, and not to mention it’s enjoyable, it’s time-consuming, but you also just manage to have a lot of fun throughout it.”
The Marching Band got an exciting opportunity this year to perform at NAU, for the Bands Of America Competition. This massive competition places Verrado against countless other schools from all over. Schools from California, Texas, New Mexico, and a couple more will be attending this.
The band has gotten new and exciting opportunities, but this has led to more pressure to get good, and fast. The band’s show has to be complete and on the field to have a chance at making it far in the competition. The stakes are high for the marching band, but every single member is excited about this opportunity presented to themselves.
