Like many other school activities and extracurriculars, marching band experienced the difficulties COVID-19 brought in its wake. 

In years prior, the band would practice almost every day and frequently go out to the football field for this. Since the beginning of school, the band had to work with only half of its members and the restrictions that came with rehearsals. 

“Before COVID, our rehearsals were split 50-50 between practicing the music and [actual marching],” junior Reese Martens said. “This year, we are only focused on music because we didn’t have the time to learn all the basics of marching. If we spend a morning inside, we are only allowed to rehearse 30 minutes at a time.”

On top of these limitations, the annual band camp they attended before school had been cut in time. 

“We were only able to play in the evenings for three hours when normally we have two weeks of band camp,” senior Josh Avery said. “We did not have a lot of preparation time, and we didn’t get to play a lot together. So,[Sept. 30] was the first time that the whole band really played together.”

The practice was in preparation for the varsity football game on the following Friday night: the first game the band was able to perform at.

“Having the full band together for our first night of rehearsal was really nice and gave us a lot more confidence,” senior Calvin Murrell said. “We got a lot done, and we felt like a normal band again for a while, even though that isn’t the case.”

At the halftime of the game against Salina South High School, the band played for the crowd.

“I’m proud of our performance at the game, especially because it was the first time performing in front of an audience,” Martens said “We’ve made a lot of progress since summer. Ms. Goss has always been supportive and is very encouraging to us.”

The band did struggle at the beginning of their performance but was able to get back on track quickly.

“We definitely have some work to do to improve our performance,” Murrell said. “The confidence of our playing also could be a lot better, but we have an underclassmen-heavy band this year, so it is a work in progress.”

The band was unable to do a full show like usual, but their biggest goal was simply to perform and share their hard work with the rest of the students and staff.

“Everything is going weird, but we’re making do with what we have,” Avery said. “We’re doing what we can.”