The fall athletic season is one dominated by football, volleyball and cross country. But one overlooked group is looking to make some noise – literally – as the marching band season prepares to crescendo into its final movement with the state championship coming up on Nov. 8.
In the Carbon Corridor, this is no different, as the Carbon High School Marching band enters this final stretch ready to put on a show for fans and judges alike. Leading the way for this group of musicians are senior Drum Majors Bradley Sweeney and Abigail Anderson, who are charged with keeping the group on time and pace.
Sweeney and Anderson spoke to Castle Country Radio about the season, the highs and lows of preparation, and what fans can expect from the band.
Sweeney started things off by talking about the progression that he has witnessed throughout the season,” It’s been impressive how much dedication that all of the kids have put into it. At the beginning of the season, and as it always is traditionally, band camp is hard when we start in the summer. It’s always a mess when we try to put it on the field for the first time, and this year, especially with a more challenging show that we’ve tried in the younger group of kids that we put it on. But it’s really impressive to see all the kids grow, and it’s really impressive to see how much the show has grown and how much we’ve seen growth in our scores as well during competitions.”
Looking at the competition scores, the band has seen steady improvement throughout the season. This includes a recent first-place finish at the Wasatch Front Marching Band Invitational on Oct. 12. At this competition, the Dinos earned Best Overall Color Guard, Best Overall Visual, Best Overall Music and Overall First Place 3A Band.
Anderson spoke of the feelings the band experienced when they were announced as the winner,” I think we were all pretty excited. It was a very exciting time, especially because Delta is one of our biggest competitors and we were all super proud and excited about that.”
The Carbon marching band consists of several underclassmen who have had to step up into big roles within the group. Anderson explained what it’s been like to watch the growth of these younger students,” It’s awesome to see where they came from this summer. Lots of them have made crazy improvements and I can see them going far with marching band.” Sweeney echoed this sentiment,” The freshmen are doing good adapting and so are the sophomores, the juniors, and even the seniors. The seniors have been forced to adapt a little bit, but overall it’s been a good experience. It’s been a learning experience and I’m happy to be doing it.”
When asked about the most challenging aspect of their performance piece, both drum majors spoke the same. The third movement. “It’s got to have been dealing with a lot of the timing in the third movement that we put on in the show,” explained Sweeney. Anderson added,” It’s very different from most marching elements we have done before. So that’s been a big challenge,” she continued,” but we’ve got it down at this point.”
Anderson also spoke on the impact that marching band has had on her life, sharing,” Band taught me that life comes with losses and that’s just a learning experience.”
Sweeney discussed what the biggest change he has seen in himself from his freshman to his senior year has been,” Probably my level of maturity and differentiation when time is to be serious versus time to be joking. I think that’s my biggest strength now versus my freshman year.”
There remain two more chances to see the CHS Marching Band in action before the conclusion of the fall season. The first comes on Wednesday, Nov. 6 when the group will host a final dress rehearsal/public performance before they leave for the state competition. Following this on Friday, Nov. 8, the band performs at Greater Zion Stadium on the campus of Utah Tech University for the state competition. 3a performances will begin at 8 a.m.
*Photo Courtesy of the Carbon High School Band