The Marching Spartans and Color Guard have captured gold—yet again.
“Pretty much everyone was new,” in the two groups, which had to replace so many graduating seniors this year, said junior Thomas Garcia.
Even with such big shoes to fill, the performing groups took first in their state ranking and fifth in their national bracket.
The Marching Spartans competed against  11 other bands in their division. Fifty bands were at the competition, ranging from small high schools in Pennsylvania to the largest high school in Staten Island, NY.
The United States Scholastic Band Association, which hosted the competition, is made up of 700 high schools across the country. The Spartans took the highest ranking in Category 4A and attributed their success not just to raw talent, but to their ability to work together as a team.
While the band and the guard practice separately, they work together to create one vision.
“It’s really not that separated,” senior Helen Keim said. The goal, she said, is to work as a cohesive unit in order to impress the judges.
Our band is only one category away from the open class category, which is the highest category on the high school marching band competition circuit.
The actual competition took place at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. After splitting into their designated teams to take care of costumes, load equipment, and get organized, the band took its usual charter bus and an hour and a half later they were there. The Marching Spartans work together when it comes to their equipment, sound and performances.
“[The competition is] not fun, it’s more [of a] reward,” said senior Drum Major Beth Demyanovich. From the basic warmups to the final note, the marching band put in hundreds of hours to reach for the highest honor.
In the USSBA event, bands didn’t compete against one another, but received a rating on a one to five scale. not against each other, but for a one through five rating, one is the best, five the worst. The WS The Spartans took home the highest ranking.
But this was a bittersweet victory for the seniors, as it was one of the last competitions they will take part in this year. They were happy to bring home the gold, but had already started missing competition when it was time to pack up their gear and go home.
“[The competition was] fun but kinda sad,” Keim said.