SWMHS Marching Band End of Season Thoughts

As December is hovering over our heads, so is the end of the Sayreville Marching Band season. The end of this season marks yet another memorable year for many of the marching band members, who have devoted hours upon hours, practicing drill sets and music to prepare for their show, “Fathoms”.

“Our last competitive competition was on Sunday, the 22nd. We were at Union High School and were against three other bands that were in the same division as us. Our division is 4 Open, which is for the largest bands,” says Junior Danielle Antoine, section leader of the sousaphones.

Last year, only one other band was Sayreville’s rival, Ramsey High School. However this year, two more bands were included, Brick High School and Elizabeth High School.

“But our ultimate bitter rival,” Danielle says, “is Ramsey.”

“Caliente” was last year’s show, and the year was quite a defeat.

“We got last in pretty much everything, because Ramsey always beat us with 1 more point over us,” Danielle remembers. “This year, we were kinda in the same boat, but at least we weren’t last. We’d normally get third place out of the four.”

But with spirits high, many members of the marching band believe things will look up next year, because a new system will be in place: an auditioning process.

“The main reason,” Ayanna Richardson, fifth year Clarinet says, “why we’re not able to reach our prime success-wise, is because of the incoming newbies.”

While there are quite a handful of veteran members in the current band, who have the most experience and can endure the casual hardships that come with being part of band, some of the new middle schoolers, aka, “newbies”, don’t quite take the task seriously.

“They goof off, they don’t listen to directions!” Ayanna says, frustrated. “But now things will change. We can finally weed out all of the people who won’t take anything seriously and are just in band for a time pass.”

Many of the veterans all support this, including Danielle. Hopefully results will look up for the Sayreville Marching Band, and they can grab the trophy that they’ve long deserved.