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Holding onto her scooter, Lucy Petiprin ’28 prepares to be pushed forward by her eighth grade partner. One of the favorite events was the human bowling, in which students rolled towards yoga mat bowling pins on scooters.
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Ready for the scooter relay, Lyla Caballero holds onto Chris Berry ’29 at the starting line. The scooter relay was the first event of the evening.
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Tipping a ping-pong ball onto an eighth grader’s spoon, Kevin Liu ’29 helps his team finish the relay race. Games like the ping-pong relay were helpful in encouraging everyone to participate.
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Speaking into the microphone, Theodore Wong ’26 excitedly introduces Head Director Brittany Dacy as one of the competition judges. Wong participated as the announcer throughout the evening.
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Placing a sprinkle, Susanne McClure ’29 and Abigail York ’28 carefully decorate their gingerbread house. The Color Guard designed an untraditional house for the competition.
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Racing against the clock, Lian Wong ’27 and Devyn Cariaga ’28 delicately frost their gingerbread house. Each section had 15 minutes and the same starting kit to create the best design.
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Pointing out a feature on her gingerbread house, Laura Varela ’26 explains the color guards’ design to the band directors. The directors went around the gym to judge each section’s house and award points.
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Cheering for their team, members of the clarinet section celebrate their victory for one of the games. The clarinets placed fourth overall in the Olympics.
As the announcer counted down the final seconds of the competition, pressure rose in the gym. Some band members delicately place one last sprinkle on their house, while others haphazardly throw frosting and gumdrops in a last-ditch effort to win. The gingerbread house decorating competition was just one event in the band’s Winter Olympics on Monday, Dec. 8, in which all Westwood band members and eighth grade band students from Canyon Vista and Grisham Middle School were invited to attend.
At the start of the event, the band’s officer team, known as the Council, worked quickly to set up the gym with tarps, tables, and decorations. Throughout the evening, Council members were in charge of setting up each game, announcing scores, and monitoring the food area.
“[Running the event] was a little stressful, but also really fun,” Eileen Wu ‘26 said. “You want to make sure everything goes well, especially because it’s one of the eighth graders’ first few impressions of us, but also, it’s really cool to see how everything works from the above point of view.”
When it was time for the games to begin, everyone filled their plates with pizza and snacks, then gathered with their sections. Each section had a table in their color, and many students were decked out in matching accessories and face paint.
“One of our section members brought a yellow face paint stick, which we all put on our face,” Naomi Hansen ‘27 said. “We also had a yellow bandana on the table covered in little plastic ducks as [decoration].”
As each event was played, the gym was filled with cheers and suspense. Sections competed in everything from human scooter bowling, to a ping-pong spoon relay. Each game awarded points to the top three sections.
“My favorite event was the gingerbread house [competition] because we all got to work together and be creative with that,” Calla Lercher ‘29 said. “I thought that was really fun and we got to eat it afterwards.”
After the games were over and the scores were totaled up, the Council announced that the flute section was the champion team. The flutes exploded into excited cheers and took a victory group photo.
“[The flutes] finally got first, for the first time ever,” Julia Gray ‘28 said. “It’s been our flute goal for a while now.”
Social events are always an excellent environment to bond as a section and take a break from the usual focus on music, but the Winter Olympics are especially important. After marching season ends, students have fewer opportunities to spend time with friends who aren’t in their daily band block and appreciate the chance to get back together.
“[The mellophone section] doesn’t have any other planned events, so I feel like it’s really good to be able to see everyone,” Lercher said.
Along with section bonding, one of the goals of the event was to encourage eighth graders to continue band in high school and show them how much fun it can be.
“[Our goal is] to showcase our awesome culture and our awesome humans and get [the eighth graders] to be excited about coming to high school band because they are excited to be around the people and to be in a great program,” Head Band Director Brittany Dacy said.
After originally meeting their eighth grade buddies during marching season, the high schoolers were excited to spend time with them again at the Winter Olympics. Each game throughout the evening required one middle school participant and one high schooler to maximize bonding and ensure everyone was able to join in on the fun.
“It was really cool. I love seeing the future of my section, and I see great things,” Gray said.
The band will hold their Full Orchestra Concert on Thursday, Feb. 26 at the Raymond E. Hartfield Performing Arts Center (PAC) at 7 p.m.
![Gazing into the audience, Wes Autry ’26 as Mr. DePinna poses like the Discus Thrower as Mayla Montgomery ’26 as Penny Sycamore paints him. Mr. DePinna was especially absurd, requiring intense amounts of committment from Autry and resulting in an All-Star Cast honor at competiton. “I never expected anything like that,” Autry said. “[This is] the first year I’ve ever gone to UIL, and winning an award from it is gratifying. It’s something I never thought I would achieve, and so achieving that makes me feel like everything I’ve done here wasn’t pointless.”](https://westwoodhorizon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Screen-Shot-2026-03-25-at-3.28.43-PM-1200x799.png)
