<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3W3Niu_1H47WSbg00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3W3Niu_1H47WSbg00" width="1200" height="963" ></figure>The backstage area of Lucas Oil Stadium thrums with the energy of 14 high school marching bands. They have already scored higher than 78 other bands from across the nation, and the Wando High School Marching Band is about to learn that it has placed fourth overall on Oct. 17.Senior Benjamin Snyder has been in the band for all of his high school years and still finds beauty and amazement in the enormity of the Indianapolis Super Regional Championship.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3nQKJd_1H47WSbg00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3nQKJd_1H47WSbg00" width="1265" height="2001" ><figcaption>Senior Benjamin Snyder conducts his fellow band members from a stand above the field. “[When] you’re a performer, you’re just following other people, but you also get a good experience of performing … [but] getting to conduct and be in front of these amazing performers is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Snyder said. ( Paige Danish )</figcaption></figure>“Playing in there and just being in that space is so amazing,” Snyder said. “It’s a completely different environment. … Getting to perform on the national scale is amazing, and everybody was very hyped going into it. … The way the sound resonates [in the stadium] is completely different from being outside. So when you’re outside, it’s like you’re just getting hit with sound. When you’re in the actual stadium, everything resonates. … It’s just a beautiful place to play.”This year, Snyder is a drum major, a leadership role that he had not previously predicted for himself.“Getting to conduct and be in front of these amazing performers is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Snyder said. “As a freshman, I thought I was very bad. I was very, very self-conscious about my performing … and I just wasn’t looking this far into the future honestly, … I definitely enjoyed doing it, but I did not see myself becoming a drum major.”Junior Audrey Cruse is also a drum major and understands the level of effort necessary to create such a large and successful production.“The biggest thing is we have a really great staff for designing a show, we’re really fortunate for that,” Cruse said. “The directors come in with an expectation, and us as leaders help trickle that down to the freshmen, so that they can also understand how to put the show together. But the biggest reason why we manage to do so well is because our staff is just so good at teaching the leaders how to lead and connecting everyone together.”The first competition of the marching band season is the Bands of America (BOA) Carolina Regional Championship in Conway, SC. However, heavy rains canceled the event, making Super Regionals the first competition of the season.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0AsVNY_1H47WSbg00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0AsVNY_1H47WSbg00" width="1441" height="2001" ><figcaption>Senior Tatum DeMooney moves in tandem with other Color Guard members during the Marching Band’s community performance. “I just … love doing it with my friends and like being able to spend time with each other, even when it’s hard. … The most important thing [is] just to always make sure that like I’m somebody that people can go to if they’re struggling with something … and just always be somebody that people look up to,” DeMooney said. ( Paige Danish )</figcaption></figure>“Because we hadn’t ever gone through a competition before, [Indianapolis] was a lot of our freshmen’s first ever competition, so they weren’t going to know how it kind of works, which is why we did our extra … community performance because we needed the freshmen to understand how a competition works. … Because some of the big bands like Avon [Band] and Carmel [Marching Greyhounds], it was their 12th competition or their sixth competition,” Cruse said.This year’s marching band performance is titled “The Watchers” and dives into a complex subject.“The whole idea of it is that the audience is obviously watching the performance, but the performers are looking back,” Snyder said. “One of the repeated ideas in our show is actually from ‘Blackbird’ by the Beatles and … one of the main phrases is ‘Blackbird singing in the dead of night / Take these broken wings and learn to fly,’ … and that’s kind of the idea of being stuck in this cage and trying to escape, because the actual song is about a Black woman at a time where did not get many rights. So we’re trying to convey that feeling of being stuck and trying to sing and be free during a time that’s so … incarcerating.”Senior and Color Guard flag captain Tatum DeMooney also plays the oboe in concert and symphonic band; granting her a perspective on both aspects of the show.“Even though it’s kind of challenging sometimes, … I just find a lot of joy in like performing and, … the wayyou can like have this whole show and then continue to … make people feel things like just really impacted me,” DeMooney said. “As like the years have gone on, I think … bonds between guard people and band members have gotten stronger. … We are doing separate things, but we’re on the same team, and we all get the same score together.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0gfVLf_1H47WSbg00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0gfVLf_1H47WSbg00" width="2001" height="1332" ><figcaption>Junior Audrey Cruse conducts the band during a pre-game performance at a football game. “There’s more pressure on you [as a drum major]. They expect a lot more of you. They expect you to not make mistakes immediately, but it’s because if you make a mistake, you can mess up the entire band. So it’s very important to have very mature people in the role so that they can handle the pressure,” Cruse said. ( Aly Dewey )</figcaption></figure>Freshman flute player Emilia Blackman finds her first year in the marching band to be well worth the hard work.“It’s definitely been hard. There’s parts where I’ve realized like, maybe I can’t do this, … but I guess I’ve just kind of realized I’m stronger than I thought I was, especially after summer [band] camp and just going through all of the things that we’ve had to [go] through, like heat and rain and just the mental pressure of it all,” Blackman said. “Everybody’s nervous at first, but once you’re actually in it, it’s incredible, and it’ll change your life forever.”</div></body>

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The backstage area of Lucas Oil Stadium thrums with the energy of 14 high school marching bands. They have already scored higher than 78 other bands from across the nation, and the Wando High School Marching Band is about to learn that it has placed fourth overall on Oct. 17.

Marching Band achieves victory at Super Regional level

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The backstage area of Lucas Oil Stadium thrums with the energy of 14 high school marching bands. They have already scored higher than 78 other bands from a

Marching Band achieves victory at Super Regional level

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