The Westwood Warrior Marching Band attended the Vista Ridge Marching Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 7. This was the band’s second competition of the season, and they worked harder than before to get the best results they could.

“We have been so focused in our rehearsals these past few weeks,” Bella Cowart ‘19 said. “We were all pretty disappointed at our last competition because we were one spot away from making it to finals, so we really wanted to do better this time.”

The band met in the Warrior Bowl at 9:00 a.m. for a rehearsal until 10:30 a.m.. They then proceeded to pack up and board the buses so they could leave to Gupton Stadium.

“I was really excited for this performance because in the last competition none of the solos or sound effects were heard because the soundboard overheated,” Vivian Tran ‘19 said. “We truly got to perform our full product with every aspect of it showing today.”

The band warmed up and performed their show at 1:30 p.m.. The students got back to Westwood at around 3:00 p.m. to unpack their uniforms. Afterwards, the students and directors ate lunch together and watched a video of their preliminary performance.

“It was surreal watching our performance with [the sound] working and the guard having all their flags in,” Brianna Brown ‘20 said. “We were all screaming and cheering during the video whenever we did something cool and we really hoped we had that kind of effect on the judges too.”

After the directors made their last comments on the preliminary video, the students left to go get some rest and returned to the band hall at 5:30 p.m. for the finals announcement.

“I honestly wasn’t nervous about hearing if we got into finals or not,” Pilar Padilla ‘20 said. “We had a really solid performance so I feel like we have a pretty good shot at making it.”

The directors announced that the band had made it into finals. They drew for a spot and got the earliest performance slot, so the students had to pack up their uniforms and leave for the stadium. The band marched their show once again for the judges at 9:00 p.m. and filed up to the stands to hear the final round’s results.

“I was looking forward to hearing the results because the band performed so well,” James Yan ‘18 said. “I really hope everyone is pleased with what they were able to accomplish in just two months.”

The Westwood Warrior Band placed second in the finals round, following close behind the Cedar Park High School Band. The band left the stadium with a brand new trophy.

“I am so unbelievably proud of every single person in this band program,” Tran said. “We worked so hard every single day to make this show what it is today and I’m proud to say that I am a part of the Westwood Band.”