Marching the band to victory
Walden Sullivan, Staff Writer
Samo marched into first place on Saturday, Oct. 23 with its first marching band competition of the year. This was a long awaited event for everyone involved as it was the first competition in nearly two years. The performance was dedicated to both the class of 2022, as well as the class of 2021—who unfortunately did not get the proper marching experience last year for obvious reasons. Along with their first win, the Samo Marching Band won first place on Saturday, Oct. 30 and won sweepstakes on Saturday, Nov. 6.
This year’s show, “Vincent: Dark to Light’’, tells Vincent Van Gough’s story through four beautiful movements inspired by various works of iconic composers, including the Rolling Stones and Beethoven. With help from the color guard, the show has several visual performances to enhance the music. Furthermore, the band has multiple props displaying Van Gough’s various artworks, such as “Starry Night.” Band parents spent several hours building said props.
After weeks of preparation, marching band students had their first competition in Baldwin Park on Oct. 23. Even with rehearsal everyday during the A.M. period, the students arrived at Samo for a 10:45 a.m. call-time and rehearsed for three additional hours before heading to their competition. They ate their lunches, boarded the buses and were off. After arriving at the venue, they ate their dinner and warmed up for another hour before finally taking the field at 7:00 p.m.
With each of their last three competitions, the band has changed their show and increased their score. They kicked off their season with an overall score of 76.86 on their performance, winning first place in their 5A division. They continued their winning streak and scored an 80.75 at their second competition in Irvine. The third competition in Bakersfield was the first time they marched a complete show, which means they marched all four movements. With a score of 84.48, the band won sweepstakes at their third competition—they won the entire competition, not just their division. Drum Major, Emma Crawford (’22) believes the band will only continue to improve from here.
“The trend for the years that I have been in marching band, is we start off a little slow and then as we get closer to our final competition, we gain momentum. We add a lot of artistic elements to our show that make it more of a show, and less sit on the field and play some music,” Crawford said.
This year the band did have some stiff competition but they still pulled through. Yunho Heo (’25) believes that their main competitor, Chino, could be defeated with a little extra effort.
“While we did win first in our division, we are a 5A band this year, and so is Chino, and them being a well-known powerhouse, we have a lot of strong competition. We could probably beat Chino, we just have to up our game. Like, if we change how we practice, then we’re probably even better than them,” Heo said.
All in all, the Samo Marching Band’s practice payed off. Marching band will be working hard to improve their performance as the season progresses.
Atsugi Ota-Hodel / Contributor