Under the bright Saturday night lights of Mt. Carmel High School, the field buzzed with nervous excitement as Westview’s marching band and Color Guard took their places to begin their performance, Oct. 25 at the 48th annual tournament of bands, one of the largest tournaments. This was the third tournament of the season, and the first time they performed their complete show, “The Cauldron in the Woods” following the storyline of witches (Color Guard) discovering a cauldron and using it to enchant the field. 

The performance includes music from Coraline, “Of a Spring Morning” by Lili Boulanger, “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga, and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from the 1940’s film Fantasia. It is composed of four movements and a preshow, with the fourth movement including quotes from “Bibbidi Boppity Boo” from Cinderella as well as “No One Mourns the Wicked” from the musical Wicked.

Color Guard won first overall and GOLD won fourth place overall.

Lead drum major David Jang (12) said that being able to showcase their entire performance, especially the climactic ending, was an amazing experience.

“We finally got to show everyone the full picture,” Jang said. “The moment I’m most proud of in the show was definitely the fourth movement. It’s probably my favorite ending of a show that I’ve ever played these four years. I don’t know how to describe it. At the very end [of the performance], we’re facing away from the audience. Then they have this really big buildup, turn around, and then all of a sudden you just get attacked by this wall of sound and it’s just absolutely amazing. And then still they somehow find more room to grow in volume all the way until the very end and I’m just like, ‘How do they do this?’”

Color Guard assembled its fourth movement in just one week. Athena Pasag (11), Color Guard’s communications manager, said they worked tirelessly to seamlessly combine their routine with the band.

“The main worry [leading up to the tournament] was just being able to get our last movement onto the field because we had just learned it that week and we were really nervous [that] we’re gonna forget all of it and that we wouldn’t get to the right places in time,” Pasag said. “But during the fourth movement, I think we were just really excited to show everyone all the new work we learned that week.”

Despite feeling the pressure of facing world class programs (the highest level of competition, characterized by advanced skills, complex choreography, innovative design, and a highly professional level of performance) like Arcadia, Color Guard took home first place.

“We had to prepare extra hard because some of the Color Guards we went against were world-class,” Pasag said. “One team that we went up against was Arcadia. They’re a world-class team and they are much bigger. I think they’re three times the size of ours, around 41 people.”

As lead drum major, Jang said that immense focus and precision are required to conduct the band during performances.

“There’s a lot that runs through my head as we perform, and it’s very overwhelming because all the sound is coming toward me, and all the visual noise is right at the front of the field, which is where I stand,” Jang said. “The main thing I have to focus on is the relationship between me and the percussion. The drumline is usually in the back of the field, and the front ensemble, the xylophones, marimbas, and other percussion, is in the front. Trying to line up with them and communicate that relationship to the rest of the band is something I always have to be conscious of.”

Jang said that every sound and movement must align perfectly across the field to create a cohesive piece.

“The main priority that the band needs is to play in time,” Jang said. “If I could walk on the podium, start the band like a car engine, then walk off without driving, my job would be complete; however, I do have to always be conscious of my timing with the drumline, which is basically a “beacon” of time that I connect the wind players to. It’s like a physics lesson — sound travels about one yard per millisecond, which seems fast, but across an entire football field, things start to get pretty dicey. I have to constantly decide when to listen and when not to listen at all, and instead rely on sight since light travels instantly. Acknowledging that and working around it can feel overwhelming, but I just have to rein it in and stay focused.”

Jang said that honing in on perfecting a movement that they had struggled on in previous tournaments helped in their performance.

“One movement that really helped us as a team [in the scoring of the performance] was definitely the second movement,” Jang said. “The first at Rancho Bernardo was quite a disaster for that movement. We fell apart twice, so, the drum line might have been on beat two, while the wind players might have been on beat one. It happened twice, [so for] the Del Norte and Mount Carmel tournaments, I spent around a total of four hours with just the percussion rehearsals, drilling the heck out of those spots. We got it so secure, so confident, and listening to it and playing it during the actual Mount Carmel tournament was just awesome. When you do something 50 times, you feel this kind of confidence of muscle memory. I know exactly what to do. Having that kind of confidence helps, and it’s also very inspiring to the rest of the band because everyone feels so secure.”

Reflecting on Color Guard’s hard work, Pasag said she is proud of her teammates for overcoming their doubts and pulling everything together in time for the tournament.

“I’m just really proud of my team because a lot of them were stressed out and really worried that they wouldn’t be able to do any of the [choreography],” she said. “At the start of the week, they were like, ‘I can’t do this,’ but then when we got to the tournament, they nailed it. Even our coaches said, ‘That was phenomenal.’ We just did all of that in one week.”

Jang said that the sense of fulfillment that GOLD felt from the program came not from rankings, but from the dedication they poured into every rehearsal and the complexity of their performances.

“Even though our band didn’t get first place, they’re still an insane group of individuals,” Jang said. “We know we have one of the most difficult shows in our division, so we’re still satisfied. Watching everyone warm up and seeing how much effort we all put in just makes me feel proud enough that I don’t care what score we get. The performances are only a few minutes compared to the hours we spend preparing, so I’ve learned to focus on the process rather than just those five minutes of glory.”