The March on Madison was held at the Madison City Stadium on Tuesday Sept. 27 and allowed the band to experience judges commenting on this year’s Motown Show. The competitions that the band attends are extremely competitive, but also really fun, so the March on Madison allowed the band to not worry about the scores and only worry about preparing for the competition later in the week. 

“I like going to the March on Madison because it allows the band to not stress for scores from the judges,” sophomore James Hargrove said. “It also helps us get ready for the competition.”

The band’s first competition was the one in Oneonta, Ala on Oct.1. It was at the Oneonta Stadium, which is near Locust Fork, Ala. The band competed in the 5A category for the competition and went up against schools like Thompson, who won the whole thing.

“I would like to say that the best moment at the Oneonta Competition was watching the other bands, and getting food,” sophomore Jett Owens said. “I personally think this year’s show is the best show we’ve done. I personally thought that the Color Guard would have gotten a two, but luckily they got a one, so we got superior ratings.” 

Throughout the summer and fall semester, the members of the marching band practice for hours on end working to perfect their show. After working so hard, the members of the band all have a variety of favorite aspects of competition and performing their half time show.

“I would like to say that the best moment from the Oneonta Competition is watching the bands come together and show the judges what they do best,” freshman Logan Davis said. “Also another moment was us doing our 2022-23 Motown Show. We got superior ratings which is good, but I would rather at least get first or second place.”  

After the March on Madison and their Oneota competition, the band also had a competition scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 15 in Scottsboro and hoped to improve between the showcase and competition to score even higher than at Oneonta. The band used those early critiques from Oneonta as a basis for improvements. More specifically, they planned to use Tuesday and Thursday practices as an opportunity  to better improve upon their critiques that they were given. 

“Overall, I’m glad we had the opportunities to go to these events and have fun,” sophomore Andrea Reith said.