Redwood Band Steps into a new Season through Band Camp

By: Aiden Lupian

Every year in preparation for the new marching season Redwood High Schools marching band and color guard go through two weeks of learning and playing music as well as learning to drill for the new show, these weeks are called Band Camp. It’s a challenging time but also quite fun as everyone gets to know each other a bit more and have some fun.

Many sections have had different amounts of freshmen joining.

Snare drum player Chris DeBrie, ’24 says, “I feel like we handled it pretty well, given the fact that there were a lot of freshmen that have never done drums before, it handled itself pretty well.”

When saxophone section leader Luciano Noguera, ’24 was asked about his section and their experience with camp he says, “I think we handled it well, we got off on the right foot during band camp and I think we are going to have a great season.”

With a new season there also comes a new drum major or this season drum majors. Aeren Buckely, ’24 and Christine Lastimoza , ’24 are Redwoods drum majors this year, leading the band is a big responsibility and they are very excited to take on this responsibility, “It feels really good, I´m seeing a lot of improvement and I think that with my experience I can help lead them to a good season,” says Buckley ’24.

Lastimoza, ’24 adds to this saying, “I wanted to feel a sense of authority to help lead them through the challenges that marchers go through.”

Lots of hard work and dedication is put into this show by the students during the camp and even the band director Jordan Ray is extremely proud of how the students did, “I thought it went really well, I thought everyone had great attitudes, everyone worked really hard at the end we had a really nice product for our parent preview performance.” 

When asked about how promising the season looked he says, “I think it’s looking very very promising, the kids have a really good work ethic, they’re putting the show together pretty quickly, they’re eating up the music, I think they´re gonna be monsters.”

Now that the season is here, the section leaders have an idea of what their goals are for the season DeBrie says, “Our goals are to do as best as we can at finals.”

Trumpet player, Hunter Wallace, ’25 says, “The only thing we have to worry about is the double tonguing feature and a lot of cleaning.”

Now that camp is over, the marching season has officially begun which means the band has started preparing for their first competition.

Even though it’s a bit away the band still has lots of work. They hope to place at each competition and they hope for a great season. “Go rangers!” Lastimoza says.

Tags: arts, band, music, music at football games, musical pit, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, rhs