The Harrisburg High School marching band has been going strong for a few years now, but this year, they have had to do things a bit differently. Because of COVID-19, the band has had to completely rethink how they would format and perform their show. Jason Groon, who is the director of the marching band program, explained, “We made a few changes when writing the drill this year to ensure we maintained social distancing on the field. This included spacing out formations and eliminating pass-throughs.” Even though many aspects of the show have changed this year for the marching band, the directors and staff involved were still optimistic about the season. When asked about his expectations for this year’s show, Spencer Whal, assistant direct, stated, “The rest of the staff and I have very high expectations for this year’s show. The members that we have on the field are very talented and are very capable of performing the show at an extremely high level. The biggest factor that has contributed to the aptitude of this group is the overall positive attitude of the students.” Communicating has been very important this year, as well. Many aspects of the show have needed to be changed and altered. This year, their show is about miners, played by the color guard, who are searching for a large diamond. The score for the show consists of bright melodies and beautiful instrumental features; furthermore, there is a marvelous trumpet solo in the third movement. Over the years, the marching band has performed many different shows, but this year both Groon, and Tim Stockman, the director of visuals, have stated that it is their favorite show to date because, “the students began to bring life to the show, [and we] have all been blown away.”
The marching band had been practicing from July until October of this year. During the season, they placed quite well in four competitions they went to, although other competitions had been canceled. Even though they were not able to perform their show as if it was a “regular season” per se, the group still managed to march through it all.