Marching band: A force to be reckoned with
“These forces are working behind the scenes to create everything that we see, hear, feel, and experience … our show is called ‘The Fabric of Reality’,” said Dennis Crystal, director of the marching band.
The 68-student marching band, run by Crystal, spent their four-month season creating a show to perform at competitions. The theme for this year’s show was the four fundamental forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetic force, strong force, and weak force.
The band practiced for over two hours each day to prepare for competitions. They started their training in summer camps. Once the school year began, the team practiced three to four days a week, with rehearsals lasting longer and longer as they got closer to the end of their season.
“We’ll spend a lot of intensive time taking each moment and rehearsing it five (to) 10 times in a row, trying to make sure each one of those details are perfect,” Crystal said.
The band traveled to six different shows during the season, including five competitions and one exhibition. They competed against bands from all over the region. Competitions can have anywhere from 12 to more than 30 bands, which are divided into classes based on their size.
On Nov. 1, the marching band went to College of the Canyons to compete in Hart Rampage, a competition put on by Hart High School. 35 bands attended the event and the NPHS band was in a class of 12. The band finished first in their class.
“It was an okay show, but we could have done better,” said Michael Price, freshman, who plays bass drum in the marching band. “We didn’t win the percussion … but our whole band got first place.”
The next weekend, the band traveled to Las Vegas to compete in the Las Vegas Regional Championships. There were nine schools in their class, and they achieved first out of those nine with their performance that Saturday. The 12 best out of all the classes then competed, and the marching band got tenth overall.
“Compared to how big these bands are, that was a pretty big thing for us,” said senior Matt Carrillo, drum major.
Their final competition of the season was on Nov. 15 at Chino Hills High School. This competition was much smaller, with only 15 bands total, and two in the band’s class. The band won their class and got 12th place overall. It was the first time the marching band had made it to finals in the championship competition. “It was a long, difficult road … but I think we did a really great job this year,” Carrillo said.
