Freshman Band Students Reflect on First Marching Season.

The first band competition season has come to an end for freshmen this year.

Elsa Wendt ’26 courtesy of Elsa Wendt ’26

Elsa Wendt who plays saxophone ‘26 says, “I feel like I can reflect on all the memories and I just have been surrounded by so many great people.”

“I am really thankful I got to be in the competition and I just [like] love being around the people that are like my friends and everything, I’ve made so many friends” Wendt says.

Matthew Garcia ’26 courtesy of Matthew Garcia ’26

Trumpet Matthew Garcia ‘26 says “It was pretty sad overall, but I was pretty satisfied with how it went.”

Garcia says “My favorite competition was Grand Championships.”

Wendt says “My favorite competition was probably the first one we had because it was so chaotic and nobody knew what to do, and it was funny because we were all learning together, it was a fun group experience.”

Wendt and Garcia agreed that their “ biggest competitor is probably Kingsburg”. Wendt says “We(Redwood) have always been neck and neck and we beat them on the last comp we had together which was amazing, we got like fourth and they got like fifth at State.”

Wendt says “All I remember from Kingsburg is there was this guy that played French Horn and he was like 7’2.”

Garcia says “My favorite memory was probably the Visalia band invitational when they announced our name.”

Wendt says “My favorite memory is being surrounded by all the people that are so supportive of you and they just love to see you grow, and I feel like I grew so much as a person during that season and I learned so much.”

Garcia says “My first season of competition band was pretty nice, I enjoyed it.”

Wendt says ”I feel like my first season of competition band was a solid 8/10 band camp really brought it down because we were at Ridgeview and it was not the best conditions, but you know if you can go through band camp you can go through anything.”