It 's Time For The Final Round Of Competition

The weather is perfect for racing: not too hot, not too humid, not too windy. I dash down the twisted trails in the woods, trying not to stumble on the gnarled roots protruding from the dirt. My spikes puncture the soft earth with every stride, and my legs repeatedly pound on the ground, soreness surging through them. As sweat trickles down my face and dirt smears across my aching calves, I ascend a steep hill, trying to bring forth the strength I have accumulated throughout endless hours of practice. Now that I am nearing the final two hundred meters, I must force my body to begin sprinting. Breathing heavily, I dart for the imminent finish line, trying to beat the uninterrupted tick of the timer. Even though the crowd surrounds all around me, I can barely hear their animated cheers, because all I can focus on is crossing the line before the girl next to me. I can feel adrenaline surging through my body, and I widen my stride to cap off the remaining distance. When I glance at my Garmin watch, a new personal best time flashes across the screen. I realize that all of the gruelling work I have put in is worth the final result: happiness. (Snapshot Lead)

“Final call girl’s four by eight-hundred-meter relay” called the official. The Ontario Track girl’s four by eight-meter team trooped up to lane one, in unison. I would not have wanted to be racing with anyone else but my relay family. We had trained all season for this one race. Every workout, asthma attack, tear, and shin splint has lead up to this one race to break a twenty year old school record. As we jogged with the official from the bullpen to the starting line, the crowd had uproars of excitement for the athletes. An immense smile grew across my face, not only from the ecstatic crowd, but from the anticipation to race. I approached the starting line, in the first lane, while my teammates arrayed along the fence with the other second,

It was a Friday evening; our team gathered before the competition started in a couple of minutes. We all gave “good lucks” to one another and off we were to the competition. After what seemed like days, it was time for the award ceremony. We are able to see our

One member of the team, Michaels Jones, tells us this, and explains how difficult it is to fit these fundraisers into her already busy schedule. Having the cheerleaders, and band at football games is an important part of the atmosphere and is one aspects many students consider when choosing a school.

Current State: I have been teaching at HCA for two years now and in that time I have been able to recruit 13 of our current 16 musicians. This means that out of a program that covers 5th through 12th grades the majority of the students currently in the program have been directly brought into the program by me. Part of the reason that we have so many young musicians is due to teacher turnover in the five years preceding my arrival at HCA. Due to various circumstances I was the fifth band director in as many years. This negatively impacted the program over time and caused huge gaps in participation, especially in the older grades. As a result I was hired to rebuild the program from the bottom up and that is what I have done. In the two years I have a nearly 50% recruiting rate and the retention of students has also been quite high. The band program serves a number of students who would otherwise not be engaged in other current programs. There are a number of students with learning issues who have benefited greatly from their inclusion and full participation in band. This is a program that engages students of all learning levels and helps them be a part of a team and work together with other students on shared goals. Students are not only learning instrumental

The Evergreen Marching Band and Colorguard (EMBC) has stewed in accomplishment, success, and hard work, for more than two decades. People don’t know, that we 're not just a normal halftime marching band--we are a competitive marching band. Like any football, drill, or soccer team, EMBC strives to compete amongst the greats. For a couple decades, EMBC has marched to success and we don 't want to stop now; however, the competitive program was close to being slashed this year, due to lack of funds. Students and parents raged at the thought of no competitive season. Competing is the best part for everyone in this program. If we lost that it wouldn’t be as much fun. We were so far in debt that if we couldn 't raise enough money, it would 've been game over.

During the past year, I have made several contributions to the marching band. Most profoundly, I made up one of four drums working in sync to combine separate parts into one. Without my presence the music would be disjointed when played. As part of percussion, my contribution to the band is providing a steady and consistent rhythm to support wind instruments. More broadly, I have contributed my time to attend all practices arriving on time, and meeting outside of school for additional practices and sectionals. On the other hand, I have also helped other members of my section with music when needed, Lastly, I have helped stay after on occasions to clean up, load, or help unload equipment.

All the work paid off. During the 2016 national competition in May, I ranked in the top 9 percent of 1,308 competitors, the highest individual performance ever posted by Decatur High School. I’m now team captain and have coaxed a lot of promising freshmen to join.

In the fall semester of my freshman year in high school I had decided to try out for my school’s drill team, the Crimson Cadettes. This organization has a reputation of very classy, well put together young women and by being on the team, one automatically has extremely high standards that they are expected to meet. Being a Cadette is a big deal because it requires an abundance of hard work and is very time consuming. My teammates and I are often spending our extra time at school whether it be for practice, pep rallies, contests or even more. There are on average about sixty dancers on the team each year and because we spend so much time together, it is expected that sometimes we’ll disagree on some things.

Last Tuesday evening saw a marvelous sight: nearly the entire Mid-County Surf Blue soccer team, 11- and 12-year-old boys, came to the Board of Director's monthly meeting along with their parents. They came to protest the Board's barring of their coach Sean Clark from the upcoming season. Several of them stood up in front of the Board and the nearly 40 other attendees and spoke in support of their coach, telling the Board how much Sean and the team meant to them, and imploring the Board to reconsider their decision. We parents spoke as well, but it was the boys' testimony and pleas that shone that night. We parents added our voices as well to those of the boys, asking the Board to act promptly. We are all still

Marching band is a social and collaborative effort at its core. As fun as it would be, a one-person marching band would consist of an exhausted player trying to trapeze across a football field carrying a bass drum, trumpet, tuba, snare drum, flute, bells, and cymbals in a contraption reminiscent of the life-draining machine in The Princess Bride. Every time I walk onto the grass in front of a crowd of semi-apathetic high school students and devoted band parents, pushing an array of wooden blocks and twine sticks, I realize how much of band is a group effort. I have no ability to march or play a brass instrument, which is where marching band started. I cannot throw a flag and guarantee that it won't hit A: myself, B: someone else, or C:

Now that marching season is over the band has gone full force into the concert season.While the band is preparing for their upcoming Christmas concert many students have been preparing to try out for mid-state, where they will compete against other student musicians in middle Tennessee to get the best spot in the top band.

Sophomore year of marching came. This year was a surprise for everyone. With our show being named ‘Masterminder.’ The band members marching were under control by the color guard soloist; the puppeteer. This show was pretty exciting, too. The judges also thought that. We made it past regionals AND semi-state. What? Yeah, we all thought the same thing. We had made it. We had FINALLY made it after so many years of just trying to get past regionals for once. It was a bitter-sweet feeling waiting for placement awards at Lucas Oil Stadium. The instructors went around to each band student one by one. The congratulated us on an amazing season. I started tearing up, but that isn’t surprising. As we marched our way out of Lucas Oil Stadium that night, I knew that this was only the beginning of a new generation for the Marching Marksmen.

everything to win, after intense practice and major training, its finally time to show that the hard

we have an exciting new opportunity for our 7th and 8th grade band students. They are invited to perform with the high school band at a home football game. please see the details below. this event is required unless i receive a written note from a parent.