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Standing on a stage, the trombone ensemble claps to a beat. The trombone ensemble provides a groove to part three of the band’s show Timeless.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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Sitting in the stands, Eva Dong ’28, Charity Kao ’26, and Harry Zhang ’26 wait to hear the finals results. After many weather delays, the finals performances ended much later than expected and suspense for the results grew as the night went on.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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Focused on the performance ahead, the battery begins their warmup. The warmup consists on fundamental skills and show chunks to ensure performance quality.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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Pushing props and instruments, the band walks on the field for their preliminary performance. While the front ensemble and JV members have the most equipment to move, other band members push stages and various props.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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Intently listening to the announcer, Jackson Paddock ’26 and other members of the loading crue wait for results. The loading crue has the busy job of loading the trucks before they join the rest of the band in the stands.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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Standing in their lines, the band, props, and color guard, wait to enter the field for their finals performance. While waiting, band members often make supportive comments to each other or offer first bumps to their friends.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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With faces of pure shock, the band watches in the stands as their drum majors enter the field for the preliminary announcements. While waiting for the results to be decided, the drum majors from every band entertained the audience by doing the wave and other fun dances on the field.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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Playing his heart out, Sam Fowler ’25 warms up for his prelims performance. the band competed at the UIL Area D Marching Band contest on Saturday, Nov. 2.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
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Focused on the drum majors, the battery provides pulse for the band. The battery is a crucial aspect of marching band, keeping steady tempo and pulse throughout the show.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler'
As the band walked off the field, smiles spread across every student’s face. Regardless of the results, they were proud of their performance. On Saturday, Nov. 2, the Westwood Warrior Marching Band competed at the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Area D Marching Band Contest at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio, Texas. The band placed seventh in finals and narrowly missed advancement to State, which takes the top five.
“I’m bummed out that we didn’t advance [to State],” Jonathan Chien ‘25 said. “We still had a really good run, and I’m proud that we performed well.”
Even though the band didn’t make State, they still moved up three places from their preliminary run, where they had placed tenth. Between prelims and finals, the band was not told where they stood which motivated them to try even harder in the finals and achieve the large placement jump.
“I think it helped not knowing we placed tenth, because if we knew we placed tenth before our finals performance, I feel like that would have affected our finals results,” Aleks Bond ‘25 said. “I’m really happy that we placed seventh during finals despite getting that placement in prelims.”
With inclement weather and an out-of-town stadium, the contest was a unique experience for the band. The threat of rain worried every band in attendance, but luckily did not affect the Warrior Band’s performance. However, the weather resulted in many delays and changes in the schedule.
“There was a lot of lightning delay and it pushed back finals results a lot, and it meant that the day got a lot longer,” Hannelore Sederholm ‘27 said.
Score-wise, the band tied with the McNeil Marching Band, and the tie was broken by judge preference. Despite the defeat, the students look forward to their upcoming performance in San Antonio.
[The band] will just be more motivated to work hard even though we didn’t advance,” Chien said. “This defeat is all the reason to get better and show who Westwood is at San Antonio.”
The band’s next performance is on Friday, Nov. 8 at the Alamodome at the Bands of America (BOA) Super Regional in San Antonio.
