The Sachse Mustang Band wrapped up a full marching season between performing at Friday night football games and competing in five contests around the area. 

The band competed in the Little Elm contest, Bands Of America Dallas competition in Bedford, the Wylie Marching Invitational,  the Plano East competition, and the Bands Of America Waco competition. The competitions ranged in size, as the competitions hosted anywhere from five to 30 bands, according to senior euphonium player Peyton Rheaume.

“Even though it wasn’t a state [competition] year, we pushed and performed just as hard as we had in past years,” senior trumpet player Elise Collins said.

State competition years occur every other year, when bands from across the state of Texas compete against each other. 

“At the beginning, we worked just as hard as a state year, but toward the end of the season we were more ready to get the season over with, if anything,” senior trumpet player Heather Tran said. “Everyone was burned out by the end of the season.”

To prepare for the marching season, the band began practicing three weeks before school started and practiced most days after school.

“Dedication is something that varies from person to person, but everyone enjoys marching season and wants to make our performances count,” Collins said. “As a group, we want to advance as far as we can.”

The strategy the band used changed only slightly from competition to competition, as the band scored as high as third place this year. 

“The week of a competition, we would go over all the parts of the show that needed work,” senior French horn player Maddie Taylor said. “Then, on the day of the competition, we would do a run-through that went over any last-minute things we needed to fix.”

The judges’ criteria changed from competition to competition. While some judges sit in the stands and judge the band as a whole, others stand on the field with the band and judge on a much more specific level.

“In BOA [Bands of America] competitions, judges are on the field looking to see if the band’s marching is consistent, or if everyone is playing their instrument correctly, or things like that,” Collins said. “There are also judges in all competitions that look at the band as a whole, and they look to see if the sound of the band blends well and if there’s an equal amount of sound from woodwind instruments and brass instruments.”

Even though the band ranked as high as third this year in one of the competitions, members were disappointed as a whole that they did not place higher.

“After each performance, we were honestly pretty disappointed,” Taylor said. “We just felt like we did better than what we were awarded.”

After each performance, the band members rated themselves and reflected on what they did correctly or incorrectly. They also made changes based on judges’ feedback during the season.

“We made finals in almost all of our competitions this year, so we knew what we were doing by the end of the competition season,” Rheaume said.