Doubling Down: Band Students Who Do More Than Just One Thing

Redwood band students manage instruments, athletics, and academics, all while keeping the school spirit alive on Friday nights.

By: Greer Olson

Doing extracurricular activities is good for any student. If it’s playing an instrument or joining a community service club, any and all of it positively impacts a student’s school life. In fact, a study with NCES shows that improved teamwork and critical thinking skills come from extracurricular activities. 

But some students don’t just settle for one activity. Gabrielle Contreas, ‘29, is one of those students who involves herself in both marching band and cheer.

For the past 6 years of Contreas’s life, she’s been involved in competitive cheerleading. About 5 of those years she’s been playing the flute in the band. Now she’s a part of Redwood’s freshman cheer team and Advanced Band.

“I’m used to it,” Contreas says when referring to long nights of practice. She says that cheer practice lasts until about 6 pm every night, and then band lasts until 9 pm on Mondays and Thursdays. 

On game days, it gets a bit more complicated. Running around from place to place to get things done and get to places on time becomes overwhelming. But Contreas explains that as long as she manages, “[her] time,” making sure she stays organized. 

But when it all becomes just too much, she says that, “I have a lot of people who can help,”  when she just needs a moment to sit down. Contreas also describes the band as being like “a family to [me],” which makes overwhelming work more manageable. 

Not only does she have her friends to lean on, but her mother is someone who pushes her to work hard. 

“She always has time for us,” Contreas says, further expanding that watching her mother be determined encourages her to work hard and stay organized like her mother. 

But Gabrielle isn’t the only student who has a booked schedule. Isla Esquviel, ‘26, is involved in Redwood yearbook and Advanced Band. She’s been doing band since elementary school and has been a part of the yearbook for the past two years.

Esquivel explains that she tends to gravitate towards sports photography, basketball being her favorite, and doing “football when [she] gets the chance”. 

When she does take pictures for football, she emphasizes that it’s important for her to keep track of time. “There’s a certain time that the band has to start heading down,” and if Esquivel misses that, she won’t be able to perform. 

Esquivel explains that she relies on her parents when she does take pictures during games. She says she always goes to her parents and gives them “[her] camera”, which they trade, “for [her] flute.” 

Esquivel says that once she’s done with her half-time performance, she “goes back to taking pictures.”

But even beyond just football games, responsibilities still collide with practice. Especially since this year she has taken up water polo as her sport, which occurs on the same days as band practice.

Esquivel expands on that, expressing that sometimes it feels like she has to choose between her passion for band and responsibility for the yearbook. There are times she wants to take pictures, but can’t because she has to “focus on what [she] signed up for.” 

Sometimes band and school work, along with deadlines for the yearbook, become stressful. Esqivel says that when it comes to managing her feelings and stress, she, “wonders how [she] [does] it too.” She feels that it’s better to just get it done because she knows that once she does get it done, she “can start relaxing afterwards.”

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