On the 29th of September Ridgeline Marching Band competed at BBI, or Bridgerland Band Invitational. Their day starts at 9:30 AM, where band members meet to pack up their instruments, props, and uniforms and head up to the Maverick Stadium on the USU campus. As their first “official” competition of the year, it was full of energy. Before the performance, I ask Catherine Thomas, senior, pit section leader, and band Vice President, how it’s going to be. She responds with a smile, “Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot of fun. We put in a lot of hard work, and I’m pretty excited for today.”

Her smile is mirrored in other students as well, but most are set and concentrated, like senior Sariah Lehnig, Drum Major. When asked what role Drum Majors serve in band, she responds, “To start and finish the show, we give tempo and then the band works with the drum line, and we make sure everyone finishes together.” After we finished talking, she lined up the other band members to begin marching warm ups, as the pit and colorguard begin their “marching” warm ups as well.

Mandy Idso oversees the colorguard, and when asked what the colorguard does, she says “We beautify the band… we’re here to portray the story.” In particular, fitting with Ridgeline Marching Band’s theme of “Blocks”, she adds, “All of our flags have squares, we’re building on each other… we reveal more color as we go on.” This is a very demanding part of the show because it involves a lot of jumping, running, and throwing and catching various objects. The girls did a great job during the show, and was “more together than they’d ever been” according to Mr. Wells, the Band director.

Overall, the Ridgeline Marching band did very well at BBI, and they have an optimistic outlook for the rest of their season!