The Regiment of Roughnecks will return to McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas to defend their military state marching competition title Tuesday.
The band received straight ones at the Region Marching Contest earning them a shot a the state title for the third consecutive year. Coming off a gold medal performance from l ast year, band members feel the pressure to continue the tradition of perfection.
“I feel a lot of pressure to ensure that the steps we took to be successful are repeated and improved on,” director Jacob Ramos said. “Every rehearsal is a series of choices and the band has to make that will either help us improve or hinder the improvements.”
Although the band is almost completely prepared, there are a few things that everyone knows they need to work on. After getting many tips from former band director Mr. Steele, the band is more self-aware of all the precise details.
“I think our band needs to work on tighter, cleaner turns, diagonals/straight lines,” freshman trombonist Luke Chavers said, “and most of all being heard on the trio and not sounding shaky (bouncing while marching).”
The march as a whole has come together, and the band has finished learning all of their drill, but the band has to go back to the basics to improve on the more difficult maneuvers. Without mastering marching fundamentals, the harder moves will be sloppy, but with perfection, the whole drill will become sharper.
“I think before contest we need to improve on simply the basics,” junior leader Sophie Fisher said. “It is easy to want to complete a drill as a whole and forget about the little things, but that is what separates state champions from others. Mr. Ramos has been drilling very hard on the basics to make sure it is extremely clean, and I think in the end it will pay off.”