Marching band’s championship run reflects both art and athletics
Sean Garnett / Contributor
Angie Nuñez of color guard performing at the West Ranch Field tournament on Nov. 16
Samo’s marching band finished their season 4th in 5A with a score of 88.2 at Championships this past Saturday, Nov. 23. While the band’s performance is undeniably an achievement, it resurfaces the challenge of categorizing marching band as either a sport or a performing art. Marching band walks a fine line between physical performance and artistic expression, blending musical talent with technical skill and athleticism, making it tough to distinguish the activity as either a sport or an art.
Marching band does not compete in CIF but instead the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA). With roughly 105 musicians, Samo’s band competes in the second largest division, 5A, which includes bands of 81-120 people. The band, led by Kevin McKeown, vice president Tehmina Zarin (’26), president Shayna Kadish (’25) and drum majors Silas Tropea-Lester (’26) and Sadie Pearlman (’25), perform the same 6-8 minute routine throughout the season. This year the routine’s theme is the Sword and the Stone, and the ballad is “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode.
“It's kind of like gymnastics, you learn a routine and you just keep working out the small parts of the routine,” Tropea-Lester said. “It's like if 100 people learned a routine and you had to make them do it the same way.”
In addition to attending and playing at home football games, marching band’s season consists of six competitions which are held across Southern California and last for roughly 15 hours. Trumpet section leader Matti Scott (’26) explains a typical competition.
“Our day starts at 9:30 with a 2-3 hour rehearsal at Samo. Then we’ll drive 45 or so minutes to the competition. A typical competition will have 20-30 schools and the smaller bands, like 1A, perform first and big bands later so we normally perform at like 9 PM,” Scott said. “Once all the bands are done we have an award ceremony and drive back to Samo. We usually get back around 11 PM but we’ve gotten back closer to 1 AM a couple times.”
Coming off a successful last season, scoring 91.1 out of 100 points --the highest the band has scored under McKeown-- at championships to secure second place in 5A, the Vikings had high hopes for this year. And although the team started out seemingly slow with scores of 77.1, 79.6 and 81.6 in their first three competitions, the Vikings still placed well, finishing on the podium at all three tournaments. Tropea-Lester had an explanation for the band’s low scores.
“The judges this year were grading teams really harshly,” Tropea-Lester said. “It does even out but it sometimes feels wrong even, but that's not the end of the world.”
Nonetheless the Vikings picked up form on Nov. 14., scoring 84.85 at their penultimate competition, the Camarillo Classic Field Tournament. The Vikings closed out the regular season well, scoring 87.5 and taking first place for 5A at the West Ranch Field Tournament on Nov. 16.
Going into Championships ranked third and with a season-best of 87.5, Tropea-Lester was hopeful the team could score better than last year and contend for the 5A title.
“I do think that there's a little bit of finals inflation. I mean last year, at our last competition, we scored 87.6,” Tropea-Lester said.
Marching band is evaluated by five judges—three for music performance and two for marching execution. Of the total 100 points, 60 are allocated for music and 40 for visual performance. This 3:2 ratio highlights the intricate balance of athleticism and artistry that defines marching band.
Marching band, an AM course at Samo, counts for PE credit like any other sport would, but isn’t listed under fall sports on the Samo athletics website. Also, and as previously mentioned, marching band doesn’t compete within CIF, California’s governing body for high school athletics. Despite this, Tropea-Lester considers marching band a sport.
“It does require the physical activity that a sport requires and it is competitive,” Tropea-Lester said. “I think it's a sport.”
Trumpet section leader Scott weighs in on the debate.
“I would consider marching band a physical performing art,” Scott said. “It doesn’t require as much conditioning as say football but it requires a lot of technique.”
Although Scott doesn’t consider it a sport, the section leader believes people should recognize the skill that is required in marching band.
“It is kind of just glorified walking but it is pretty hard to be able to walk, first of all, in time with good technique throughout the routine,” Scott said. “Not only do you have to be coordinated, to be able to walk in time and kind of calculate how far you need to go, but you also need to be able to play your instrument while doing that, which is hard because you're moving, you're bobbing up and down, which means that your airflow isn't steady and consistent. There's just a lot of really, really technical things that come into being able to march well.”
In the last two weeks of summer vacation, marching band has a two week long summer training program to prepare the musicians for their season. Monday through Friday, band members are subject to physical conditioning and practice technical marching from noon to 8 PM.
Whether one considers marching band a sport or not is subjective. What is clear, however, is that the Vikings have worked hard this year.
“10 out of 10 people who are not in marching band probably believe that it's not a sport, but I would just like people to know that we do stuff more than just sitting there at the football games and playing for the football team,” Tropea-Lester said.