The KHS Marching Wildkats are wrapping up another successful marching season. After earning 3rd place at the Indiana State Fair Band Day, the group earned a gold rating with distinctions in music and visuals at the 2024 Indiana State School Music Association Summer Showcase last weekend.
During the competition season, the marching band placed first at one regional competition and second at the others, before finishing 3rd at state.
“We were thrilled with our placement at the state fair. Of course, we would have liked to win, but third place is a great finish for us,” said band director Brandon Anderson. “The best thing about the placement is it shows how everyone is improving across the state, not just in our band.”
This year’s show, The Aquarium, used exciting details that made the show come to life, such as bubbles, bubble balls, colorful fish costumes, fish makeup, rocks, a castle for the fish to enter from and even jellyfish umbrellas. But it’s not just those details that made the show a thrill to watch. It was all of the students who were so dedicated to presenting the theme by using their facials and body language to fulfill the role of a fish in an aquarium.
“When we pick a theme we look for what we think will work best with the current students, music that will work well, and what will improve our program as a whole, Anderson said. “This year we had a large color guard, in particular senior guard members, we felt that the fish/aquarium theme would be a good choice for featuring all of those fantastic students.”
Jolee Pregno, a senior at KHS, is a member of the color guard and had a featured solo in the show this year.
“The process is very tedious, especially during band camp. Eight hour days are not easy and it’s hard to stick with it,” Pregno said. “This season for me was less about the competition aspect and more of just taking it all in because it’s my senior year.”
With co-directors Brandon Anderson, and Deanne Wideman, and assistant directors Justin Ekstrom and Alyssa Humberg, they never fail to put on an amazing production. There are many different aspects to what goes into marching band. First we have the band, then the color guard, then all of the directors, but beyond that the rehearsals and the planning are extensive.
There are so many elements to the marching band that it’s hard to imagine the show coming together. From all the music they have to learn, to playing the music while shifting to different positions on the field, and staying on beat, it takes a lot of time and dedication to be successful. And the Marching Wildkats are no stranger to success, placing in the top 5 at the State Fair for the last several years.
Sydney Colescott, a senior at KHS, plays the clarinet and has been in marching band for four years. She is currently a section leader.
“We start with a week of music camp where we learn and memorize our music, we learn the basics so the next week when we start band camp, we can learn the show as fast as possible,” Colescott said. “After this we clean and add character, choreography and anything else to make the show better.”
Colescott has enjoyed seeing the changes the band has gone through during her time at KHS>
“After four years of marching band, it is really cool to see how much our group and others have changed,” she said. “After El Toro Bravo, a previous show, we realized what worked for our group.”
But with the success of the season, there were also hardships for the marching band.
“This was a challenging year because last year we had an absolutely huge senior band class. This meant that a lot of our sections were smaller and lacked upperclassmen leadership,” Anderson said.
The loss of so many members also impacted the show choice.
“We were down almost 25 members. Since we had such a young new group we opted to find a show that was more fitting and less technical than performances we did in the past,” Colescott said.
The KHS Marching Wildkats will perform their 2024 competition show, The Aquarium, one final time at tonight’s football game. They will also honor their 2025 senior class.
