Band shines bright at Cap City
First-place finish at the first marching competition bodes well as Mac heads into the heart of its competition season
September 27, 2022
The Mac band participated in the Capital City Marching Competition on Saturday performing its 2022 dynamic, boxing-themed show “Seeing Stars.” The band played through intense sun and heat in the preliminary round, resulting what several band members considered to be a sub-par performance. Despite that self-assessment, the band placed first in 4A color guard and marching that afternoon, giving them the momentum it needed to instill confidence heading into the finals later that evening.
Cooler weather, darker skies, combined with the band’s determination and skill, propelled the band to a first place overall finish with a finals score of 886. The impressive finals run left the audience and Mac band members impressed. The band will continue its marching season this weekend in their next competition.
We are pleased to share some of our favorite images captured from the Cap City competition as this week’s Tuesday Top 10 photo essay.
THE STARS OF CAP CITY: Junior Bini Gonzalez plays the trumpet during the band’s performance of “Seeing Stars” in the preliminary round of the Capital City Marching Festival on Saturday. Gonzalez said that while he could’ve gone without the extreme heat the band performed in, he was super excited to experience the first competition of the year.
“I think prelims was a bit rough, but that’s because it was so hot and this was the first competition for many people,” Gonzalez said. “I made mistakes in prelims that I fixed in our finals performance later.”
Gonzalez said it felt amazing to relive his favorite Mac Band memory: winning Cap City last year, his first marching competition. For the third year in a row, the Knights took home first place, this time with a boxing-themed show titled “Seeing Stars.”
“’Seeing Stars’ is cool because it’s like a duel show,” Gonzalez said. “The brass and woodwind parts kind of duel each other. We also will have different robes for the sections to make this dueling of parts not only musical but visual. I think that our ballad is pretty amazing with the tenor sax and trombone duo.” Caption by Ingrid Smith. Photo by Sophie Kessler.
TAKING HOME THE GOLD – The crowd cheers for the McCallum Band, Percussion, and Color Guard as they win the final round at cap city for the third year in a row. The LASA-run marching band competition has multiple schools from across the district that compete to take home the final awards for their school.
“It was a big honor and achievement for the band to do so well in a competition like that,” senior Oliver Harrington said. “It gives us a new kind of energy as we go forward into our marching season.” Caption by Devin Neal. Photo by Morgan Eye.
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: Junior color guard member Isa Pirkey performs during the preliminary round at the Cap City Marching Competition. Saturday was Pirkey’s first time performing with the guard at a competition.
“I felt pretty prepared,” she said. “We had been working on it [the performance] a lot leading up to the competition, but I was a bit nervous in some rough spots.”
The flags and props used by the color guard are an integral part of the “Seeing Stars” show, but to guard members such as Pirkey, they can cause some anxiety.
“The props are hard to move and get stuck easily so there’s always a chance they could mess something up.”
Pirkey is looking forward to upcoming band competitions.
“I’m super excited about it,” she said. “I feel confident that we can do even better next time.” Caption by Francie Wilhelm. Photo by Morgan Eye.
Junior flutist Stella Hufford warms up before the preliminary round at the Cap City marching competition. Photo by Sophie Kessler.
A MARCHING FAMILY: Head band director Carol Nelson observes her students with pride.
“MAC Band is a family,” Nelson said. ”We spend so much time together, and we get to see our students from ninth to 12th grade. The bond is strong.”
Nelson felt confident going into the prelims and wasn’t surprised with the energy and professionalism the band brought to the field.
“Our success at Cap City means that our band continues to be a consistent standard of excellence.”
Caption by Elena Ulack. Photo by Morgan Eye.
ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES: Seniors Mira Wagner and Tyler Mankinen duke it out during the first moments of the final round at the Cap City Marching Competition. The 2022 marching show “Seeing Stars” gets its name from its boxing theme, and according to Wagner, who represents the woodwinds section, the early fight scene “definitely sets the tone.”
“Right off the bat you see two people fighting so you know that this show is full of energy,” Wagner said.” “Even throughout the show, the woodwinds and brass are ‘competing’ against each other which goes with the boxing theme.”
Mankinen, who represents the brass section, believes the fight scene is a crucial element in the marching show.
“[The fight scene] usually gets the crowd pumped up and draws the attention of the audience into the show,” Mankinen said. “The show is super unique and seeing the crowd react to an unconventional element of a marching show is really exciting.”
Caption and photo by Morgan Eye.
KEEP YOUR GUARD UP: Color guard captain Ximena De La Garza flies double-swing flags during the finals performance at the Cap City Marching Competition.
The final performance came just after the guard was awarded best in its category in prelims for the first time in 40 years. According to De La Garza, the band performed “an amazing show.”
“After you get on the field there’s just a sense of ‘I know what I’m doing, and I’m just going to have fun with it,’” De La Garza said. “It felt exhilarating walking on field and seeing how spirited everyone was.”
Caption by JoJo Barnard. Photo by Morgan Eye.
TIME TO SHINE: The band presented a combination of various songs and choreography during Cap City’s marching competition. The task of playing an instrument along with marching was the result of many practices.
“We do rehearsals every morning so we practice a lot,” freshman Dustin Stanley said. Stanley says the band’s preparation beforehand gives him cool confidence during the competition. Caption by Gaby Esquivel. Photo by Morgan Eye.
PLAYING TO WIN: Representatives of the McCallum Band await results for the preliminary round of the Capital City Marching Festival. Senior and drum major Stephanie Gallegos said that while prelim awards were a little intimidating, she felt confident that the band’s performance was good enough to make finals. Gallegos was right; the band took home a first-place overall finish.
“The band performed great,” Gallegos said. “Definitely our best run so far. It shows the band what we can achieve, but of course we’ve got to remember to stay in it. The season has just started and we have more competitions we have to perform well in if we want to win.”
While winning Cap City was exciting, Gallegos said her favorite memory from the competition was the warm up time before finals.
“The band was locked in, and you could tell people were ready, they were all playing to win,” Gallegos said. “And that was just the warm up, so when we got to the stadium, their performance blew me away.”
While Cap City was the band’s first competition of the year, Gallegos believes that the band’s winning performance is a sign of good things to come. She said the band is still working on adding more boxing into the show and is planning to “crown a champion” boxer at the end of each performance.
“Winning Cap City was great,” Gallegos said. “It’s a great way to start our season, get people in good spirits and have fun and knowing what our band can accomplish.”
Caption by Ingrid Smith. Photo by Morgan Eye.
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Senior drum majors Lila Markey and Stephanie Gallegos hold the trophy that signified their win during the Cap City Marching Competition preliminaries. For Markey, who’s been in marching band for four years, this win, which marks three years in a row of first-place prizes, came as a welcome finish to a long, slightly disappointing day.
“After prelims, we knew we did only OK,” Markey said, “It was a solid run, but nowhere near the level we knew we could perform.”
Knowing she needed to be at the top of her game, Markey stayed on autopilot the whole retreat,
“All that was going through my mind was to look professional and to represent the band the best I could,” Markey said.
That mindset proved to be successful, allowing the Mac band to make it to the finals and win 4A Marching overall first place.
“I felt like I was ready for finals,” Markey said, “I didn’t feel this in the moment but looking back, everything was just right and I knew I was ready to steal the show.” Caption by Helen Martin. Photo by Morgan Eye.
