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Warming up, junior section leaders Jillian Riethmiller, Emilio Vidrio, and Myah Kapavik help set the example for the band. Every performance, the band gets around 45 minutes to warm up their bodies and instruments.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
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Performing their show, Red, in finals, woodwind and brass players play their beginning set. Kevin LeBoeuf spent a major part of rehearsal before the competition cleaning the beginning sets of the show.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
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Waiting for the final scores, the band stands in open second at full retreat. At almost every major competition, the finalist bands stand for full retreat at the end of the night, and break ranks once the scores are announced to talk to other band members.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
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Marching with the battery, Scout Juarez ’27 and Beckett Broussard ‘28 play their snares. The battery and head drum major work together to keep tempo for the band.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
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During warm up, head drum major Cynthia Liu ’26 conducts the band. The warm up area is often filled with noises and distractions from other bands, so it is essential that students focus on the drum major to stay in time.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
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Unloading a podium, Jacob Chow ’26, Zeke Stringfellow ’28, and John Magdaleno ’28 step down the ramp of the truck. Members of the Loading Crue are in charge of loading and unloading equipment at every performance.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
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Focusing on the drum major, Julia Gray plays her flute during part of the band’s show, Red. The brief morning rehearsal at Westwood helped students prepare to perform later that afternoon.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
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On the Warrior Bowl, woodwind players perform their body warm up at the start of rehearsal. The band had a short practice at the school before loading busses and heading to the stadium to compete.
Courtesy of Owen Fowler
Taking a deep breath and releasing all tension from their bodies, members of the Westwood Warrior Marching Band set their starting poses for their preliminary performance of their competition show, Red, at the Texas Marching Classic (TMC). The contest took place at the Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex on Saturday, Oct. 11. TMC was the first time they performed all parts of their show, which is based on the story of Red Riding Hood, for an audience this season.
“It’s really nice to be able to show everyone our full show in its entirety. We’ve consolidated ourselves as a group and we’ve gotten a lot better,” Tanner Dean ‘28 said. “It’s nice to see all the bands come together. [I saw] a lot of people that I’ve met from other band [events] that I haven’t seen in a while so it’s really nice to be able to see all of them again.”
In order to better clean the show for TMC, the band enlisted the help of Kevin LeBoeuf. Mr. LeBoeuf is the Brass Caption Head for the Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps, and is experienced in teaching band students to perform at higher levels. Like other clinicians who have worked with the band, Mr. Leboeuf joined the band in classes and rehearsals for the days leading up to TMC and made changes and suggestions as needed.
“We’ve been working a lot on choreo, accents, and timing with Mr. LeBoeuf,” Caroline Sederholm ‘29 said. “He works a lot with us on playing more than anything. He’s also talked a lot about timing things with feet, so he’ll play a certain style and then we’ll match him. He really just tells us the best way to execute things we’re already doing. He’s probably one of the best techs I’ve worked with so far.”
Under the hot afternoon sun, the band ran their preliminary performance. After performing, they sat in the stands to watch the announcements, finding out they made it into finals.
“I think [our prelims run] was pretty good,” Dean said. “There was a lot of good stuff happening. The tempo was a little bit faster than normal, but I think it was just because of the liveliness of the band as a whole.”
After dinner and a quick break, the students got dressed and warmed up again for their finals performance. Now under the stadium lights, they performed their show for a much larger and more enthusiastic audience than their previous performance.
“For me personally, the finals run was one of, if not my best run,” Amelia Nuccitelli ‘27 said. “I think a lot of us were really tired and just not fully in it due to the exhaustion, so a lot of avoidable mistakes were made, but overall I thought it was very strong.”
At full retreat, the band placed 11th in finals. Although it was a disappointing downgrade after placing 8th in prelims, students were still proud of their two strong performances and are looking forward to upcoming competitions where they can perform even better and hopefully receive the credit they are looking for from the judges.
“The results were disappointing, especially going down three places when we only lost .7 points,” Nuccitelli said. “It was definitely not what we expected, but I’m excited for BOA Waco. I think we have a really good shot to do spectacular and if we [score] all ones at region, I think that will also boost our morale and help us do better.”
The band will next perform at UIL Region on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex at 8:30 p.m.
