On October 8th, the Redwood Band & Color Guard took first place in their class at their very first competition of the year at Washington Union in Fresno.
Classes are determined based on band size, with 1A being the smallest and 5A being the biggest. Redwood Received first in 4A, as well as receiving captions in music and percussion (highest scores in those categories).
Getting ready for the big performance America Vasquez-Lara ‘23, the head drum major, says “ I’m very confident about the show actually, even though it’s not fully finished”.
Vasquez-Lara has no doubt that they are going to do well, she says “We’re definitely going to score pretty high, the winds are sounding really strong, percussion is killing it, [and] the guard is really good at their choreography”.
When they got first place the whole band was ecstatic and it was definitely a night to remember.
Returning from last year’s competition, trumpet player Elias Hernandez ‘25 says “I’m most proud of just winning the whole thing in the first place and having our band have the most spirit”.
Hernandez says that there is still room for improvement in performing, “It’s still early in the season and we could get better so just performing in general”.
Band members said that the toughest competition was Kingsburg and Lemoore, and that it will be a battle to stay at the top all season
Fletcher Grove ‘24, a baritone saxophone player, says that the best part about performing was, “The way I felt right afterwards, it was pretty nice, and the fact that we got first place.”
Grove is confident in the upcoming players he says, “I’m proud of the freshmen that have joined us this year, they have done so good and I’m really proud of them.”
rachel vilhauer
Rachel Vilhauer '25 is a first year journalism member of the Redwood Gigantea. She is interested in writing art stories specifically for band but is open to any story in the arts section.
You can contact her at:
rache.vi8618@vusd.us
Tags: band awards, competition, marching, marching band, marching season, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, Redwood marching band, redwood sports, rhs, visalia ca
Our band is fabulous this year!! It’s very exciting! Thanks for covering this Rachel!