On Saturday, Sept. 25, the Band and Vision Dance Company competed at Bands of America at the Kelly Reeves stadium.

“I loved getting to perform again in front of a crowd and getting to put on a show after not being able to perform for a crowd,” Drumline junior Callie Luong said.

The band has been preparing their show since July, with their summer band performances.

“We have put in so much work since summer band, with after school rehearsals, and our community night,” Drum major Brooke Stewart said. “From not having a competition in 2 years, we were so excited and ready to perform our show.”

In the preliminary round, the band won the Class 4a Champions, Outstanding Visual, Outstanding General Effect. And at the finals they won BOA Austin Regional Champions, Outstanding Music and Outstanding General Effect.

“My favorite part of the whole thing was the final performance and results,” senior Vision dancer Liana Mina said. “The results were so fun because of the anticipation leading up to it. And as a senior the final performance was awesome because it let all our hard work come to light.”

The band had a packed schedule. They arrived at Kelly Reeves at 1:30 pm, performed at 4:00pm, and had the finals award ceremony at 11 pm. They arrived back at Vandegrift at 1 am.

“Being back in a competitive setting, and being able to have that fun social aspect and be able to hang around other bands and watch everybody else perform, it was so much fun.” Stewart said.

Due to not having competitions last year, many band members had never competed before, so it was a learning experience for many. 

“The toughest part was that a lot of the sophomores and freshmen had never really done a competition before, so we all had to help each other out.” Luong said.

COVID-19 last year took away competitions, so the band were grateful to get back out on the field to perform. 

“It wasn’t just about the competition aspect of it,” Stewart said. “It was not taking for granted that we actually got to compete, and that we were able to present all of the effort we put into our show.”