Band and color guard are in school and after school activities. There are two teachers and many student captains involved. They get to show their skills during halftime at football games and competition. Wakefield also hosts a competition called Heart of Carolina, all though our band can’t compete in the competition they do preform twice.

“It takes a lot of dedication, a lot of spirit, and energy and it takes a lot of sacrifice,” Said Destiny Rider, drum major. This year’s show is entitled Be Careful What You Wish For.

Every year the band hosts HOC (heart of Carolina) which is a band competition. Lots of bands come to Wakefield to compete. Our band doesn’t get to compete since we host it but they do preform twice. The band also has more responsibilities before, during, after.

“We have to clean up the whole campus, make sure we have all the facilities like the changing area and the water stations are all set up and make sure every person knows the schedule. We also have to make all the food for the bands,” Said Rider.  That’s just during and some of the before. The band has even more things to do before and after everybody leaves, they also have to clean up the whole campus afterward and also before. But others think they are just as important as competitions and HOC.

But being in the band also has its advantages “I support mostly everybody,” said Ricky York, bass player. “I come to the first meeting to help the freshman feel better, especially during band camp before school started because of the fact that they are coming from the middle school into high school and its harder to transition from there, so I go to them and I help them feel better and at least give them one friend before school starts”

It also takes a lot of time out of everybody’s schedule.

“We have practice during fourth period class time,” said York. They also spend time prepping before a game “we take a break until about 5 or 5:15 and then we practice until the actual game,” said York.

“We spend time out on the field doing full run through, which are basically us performing our entire show over and over again,” said Proctor, the guard instructor.

The teachers involved also dedicate their time to put together the show over the summer and during the school year. The teachers involved plan the theme of the show and plan what music they want, then the students get involved. They spend part of the summer teaching the students the first half of the show.

“We have a camp in June, rehearse one day a week throughout the summer, and a two week band camp in July where we learn the first half of our show,” said Ms. Proctor, the guard instructor.

“For some, the football games are not as important as competitions

“Each performance is a performance and you have to try your best no matter what. People say football games aren’t as important but I say that each performance is important and people are going to see you so you want to be good regardless,” said Lyn Ebron, guard captain.

The teachers meet over the summer to decide what theme is best suited for the year.

“Ms. Proctor the guard instructor, Mr. Johnson our drill writer and any other marching band staff we have will sit down and go through ideas and see what we like and don’t like and see if there is any music that would fit or we want to base the show off of and kind of formulate an idea off of that, and then we develop several ideas and choose what is going to be best for that year” said Munoz.

The process of writing the show includes many processes including the one about deciding what theme to use as the show.

“Mr. Johnson writes the drill  then Ms. Proctor and I sit  down with him and say, this works or we need to make some tweaks here and there so all three of us come up with the visual drill but Mr. Johnson is the one who actually writes it in computer software,” said Munoz.

The teachers recognize how hard the students work.

“Students work extremely hard as they rehearse in class five times a week, two days after school, and most Saturdays,” said Proctor. “Students are motivated as we do not just perform at home games, but competitions on Saturdays where we compete against many other bands across NC. They look forward to show casing their talents and seeing what other bands have put together for the season,”

“The band is a family no matter what we are always there for each other we are always helping out one another somehow, so they’re supportive of everybody,” said York.