Personal Narrative: The Benicia High School Panther Band

I was born and raised in Gulfport, Mississippi, an area immersed in a relaxed coastal culture and a vibrant jazz and blues heritage. Gulfport is located right off the Gulf of Mexico and less than an hour from New Orleans, Louisiana. Living near the Gulf, heavily influenced my childhood, I would spend weekends at the beach, and long hours traveling to distant islands far from the coast I called home. The music you would hear at the beach were always from timeless Americana artist; such as, Bob Dylan and Jonny Cash. My parents, not musicians themselves, were infatuated with the music of the late 1980’s from artists like Prince, Michael Jackson, and Journey. My particular favorite artist from that time period was Queen, and my love for rhapsody

I have always been a particularly musical person. When I was younger, I wanted to become a singer when I grew up, but upon joining the choir in elementary I realized I did not have the talent for singing that I thought I had. Continually singing off key and never sounding as good as my peers did, I decided to confine myself to singing at home where only my family could hear me. Despite this revelation that I was, in fact, a terrible singer, I still wanted to participate in some type of musical performance and decided to join the band in middle school. After trying out various different instruments, I settled on the flute and quickly fell in love.

It was the moment I had been practicing for. I was finally going to try out for my middle school cheer team and hopefully make it. I was so excited I could barely focus on my classes that day. I had run through all of the steps at least 50 times that day.

Meet my Jazz band. This is a picture of us in New Orleans my junior year during spring break to play Jazz. I decided upon this picture because this band has had such a profound impact on how I frame my future.

Although many people argue that ẗhey cant dance¨ anyone can really dance. Moving your hips or side stepping is dancing. Although thats how my passion started out, I am going to explain dancing as a sport. Narrowing down to competitive (sweat, blood, and tears) dancing. Specifically, dancing as a member of the desert hills high school drill team. A drill team dancer is required to be strong, flexible, and brave.

Throughout my life, I have participated in a lot of activities and have had several

It all came down to this. All of the long hours of hard work, all leading up to this one final practice. Next Saturday the Liberty High School Marching Band would be competing at the FootHill Band Review and every member had to give it their all if we wanted to have a successful practice. It was a brisk October night, the leaves on the trees were turning a beautiful auburn, and the sun disappearing into a golden sea behind Mount Diablo. As we got into our formation in the parking, I felt the brass slowly turning my hands numb as I held my trumpet.

In the summer of 2012, my sister and I joined the Saltillo High dance team. For Elizabeth and I, our first pair of shoes were ballet slippers, but our fellow team members had little to no knowledge of dance. Elizabeth and I felt a strong responsibility to use our talents to transform fourteen softball players into dancers. We learned very quickly the cost of being a leader- sacrifice. Elizabeth and I found ourselves searching for ways to improve the team, choreographing routines, and privately instructing stragglers. We sacrificed our time and efforts to push our teammates and serve our community. After three coaches quitting on the team, Elizabeth and I were left with broken hearts. Our unity as sisters and leaders sparked a flame to push

For many years I have been known for being a very talented athlete. But what many people do not know is that I was once in the Elba Marching band. Being in the band has taught me a lot of things, like reading music, discipline and organization. The most interesting thing about the band was that we had to learn how to read music. At first this was a challenge for me, but I soon got the hang of it.

Head drum major Sydney Walsh, called us to attention as Mr. Sievers was announcing the leaders of the band. I thought to myself that there’s more than three hundred people in the stands that are going to be watching our performance. All of a sudden I snapped back as we were starting to march out to take the field. I looked over to the right and notice that all of the West Bend West fans were even ready to see what kind of a show we were about to put on. When I got to my spot on the field which was the thirty-two and a half north side yard line. We started out in a formation that looked like a Q from the Owls side stands as we were about to start playing our first piece “Queen Opener”. The movements and formations flowed smoothly as we played through the piece, like making sure to remember what yard lines I stop on and what note in the song I move on. All of this came to my mind naturally like a quarterback knowing when to throw the ball. Then, Mr. Sievers announced the next song which was the color guard feature “Lips are Moving” as we were walking in step to our concert formation. As we were playing the song, I was keeping a close eye on Sydney to make sure I wouldn’t fall behind of the rest of the band due to the song having a faster tempo than what we normally play. When we finished the song we went into parade rest as the drumline walked up to the track and performed their drumline feature, a combination of moving around and playing which really gets the crowd cheering. After the crowd died down from the excitement of the drumline we moved on to our closing piece, “Saturday Night’s Alright”. This was my favorite song of the year. I enjoyed this song so much that I took the extra time to memorize it and make it easier for me to watch our formations and make sure we look right in the drill as we played throughout the song. We started out in a box shaped formation and throughout the song, we would change to different shapes and move at different speeds while the

Imagine you were standing on a massive football field with thousands of eyes on you. Your legs quiver with excitement, ready to show the audience what you and your closest friends have got. And it begins; your very first marching band performance. This is the beautiful part of marching band: compassion, friendship, competitiveness, courage, and the strength to continue. This is why marching band is a sport.

I start off everyday by getting ready and heading to school. When I get there, I walk into the choir hall and prepare for an hour and a half long rehearsal that I know will leave me tired. We always start with ten or twenty minutes full of physical exercise. When that is done, we move into breathing exercises that always somehow seem more physically demanding. Finally, we get to singing; which is my favorite part of the whole day. After that, I painfully move through my classes ready for the next morning when I get to go to rehearsal again. When I leave school-on days I don’t stay after- I get into my car, turn it on, and hear my music again. This time it is on a CD and I happily sing along. When I get home, I study my music for thirty minutes

A team in Concord, Calif., has had a win streak of 151 games. North Atlanta High School 's team can barely pull off three wins this season. The Spartans have had plenty of perfect seasons. North Atlanta closest time ever in the school’s history was to getting a perfect season was going 7-3 in 2010.The team from California doesn 't know the meaning of defeat.North Atlanta barely knows the feeling of winning.

It was an early Saturday morning in October, when the Panther girls softball team were playing for a third straight win. The two games before that flew by easily, we won both and were playing to be seeded first in the tournaments the next day. The crowd was full of excitement, parents yelling, and the coach yelling at the umpires, because of bad calls. We were nervous because it was a really good team that had 3 of the best players in the state. We had played them in two previous tournaments, and lost on the second day, so this time we were determined to beat them.

Marching band was an exhilarating way to prove your school pride during the year. It takes a lot to be a part of Marching Band.Although It’s hard work, the students involved love “The relationships you build,” Exclaimed Brittani Ricks ’17.Also helps to “Improve as a musician.”Stated Sydney Matiska ‘10.To be successful and improve in marching band you must be very responsible and also strong enough to endure the long hard band camps and practices.There are many responsibilities, some have titles and some don’t, Macey Wolf ‘16 and Brittani Ricks ‘17 were the drum Majors for the 2015-2016 school year.One of the highlights of the fall season is performing at the varsity Football games on Friday nights. “We try to keep calm in the face of some