Wow, waking up this morning, I realize that we are once again having a rain show, probably indoors at Mineola High School tonight. What does this mean? Well, the last time we performed for judges on the field was October 4th, at the Huntington show. So we are going into the dome a new band, not being judged for 3 weeks, an eternity in a competitive marching band season. In addition, the judges who saw us at that show could very well be judging us at the dome, which is good, and bad. The bad...........they burried us. The good...............they said that if we got this show down, we could take it all. At Arlington the next week, the judges popped Mineola to an 82, pretty much guaranteeing them a win at the dome, which is great for them, our neighbors. I personally think that the slate at the Arlington show will be judging the “large school slate” since most of the bands at that show were large schools. All except Mohonassen and Mineola. We will know who the judges are going to be on Monday morning and I will post it on this blog.
Knowing Mineola was going to have a phenomenal year, we heard it from camp our goal was to stay right under them this year and possibly get 2nd at the dome. That didn’t quite work out, they beat us by alot. However, with the weather, Mother Nature has given us another lease on life! The early October scores really mean nothing now. There will be 12 judges deciding our fate and we have quite a bit of control over that.
What do we need to do? Watch the youtube video of the Pep Rally. That pretty much tells it all. I don’t know why there are still wrong notes, people sticking out musically, and the opener sounds like only 20 people are playing. We have to get over the drill anxiety and play out while we march. Yes, the drill is hard, but we are nailing it. Let’s play musically and get those parts down cold this week! It is better but not championship caliber.
What is the worst that can happen? We can go in with what we got and get 5th place in our class. We will still beat half the bands at the dome in classes LS3 and SS3, and come home winners. Right now, with the wrong notes, unmusicality, people sticking out and people not playing, that’s what we would get.
What is the best that can happen? We put it all together, get confident, play musically, all of us get our music down, and nail this thing, coming in 1st place. An upset for the ages, one which will be talked about forever. It is totally possible and in our court. We have to make a decision and do it! These last rehearsals have to be incredible. We still have this morning’s music rehearsal, this morning’s sectionals, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s rehearsals, a big rehearsal on Halloween at Central Square Stadium, and the big warm up rehearsal at skytop before the dome. That is alot of rehearsing and cleaning. Big music rehearsals and some huge visual rehearsals to tighten up those box moves.
Major upset, an upset of huge proportions. One for the ages. Let’s do it!
