The marching band attended the William Mason Invitational held at Mason High School on Sat., Oct. 21.

The group competed at 5:00 p.m. in open class against two other bands. At the end of the day the ensemble won all awards in their class and showed how their hard work throughout the week had paid off.

“The competition was so much fun! It was probably one of the best ones I have been to in my entire Color Guard career. I’m so excited to work on making our show better for the next few weeks,” said Sara Cohen, 12.

After performing and putting their instruments away, the ensemble had the chance to watch William Mason perform its show. Due to rules, Mason was just an exhibition, meaning they were just performing to receive a score but would not be competing against other bands.

“This week was really rewarding. The hours we put in paid off, and through our performance that was visible. During the performance, I felt for the first time this season that we were united as a team because we were all supporting each other as well as ourselves.

“We need to work really hard to hold each other accountable and come together as a team to finish this season strong,” said Abigail Motley, 10.

Last year, the band competed in AAAA, but due to the increase in the size of the ensemble, they now compete in Open Class.

This means instead of being one of the bigger bands in their class, they are now one of the smallest. This has lead to some struggle, and it means the band has to push themselves harder.

“This competition I feel was a turning point for us. The weekend before was not our best work, but we turned it around, and to me that shows how dedicated we are to improving,” said Jennifer Lu, 11.

After completing their piece, the group received all of the awards for Open Class: first in their class, all of the awards for Over All, excluding the award for Auxiliary, and grand champion out of a total of 28 bands.

“It made me happy that all of our hard work paid off, and it felt good to know that Mr. Jim Blankenship thought this it was the best run we have ever had. My personal goal is to be able to count through a whole phrase and not being behind.

“The ensemble and I still have work to do, but I know we will all work hard,” said Kira Washington,9.

The group has their next competition on Sat., Oct. 28 and are working hard to clean their show and make it the best of their ability.

They are pushing themselves hard to reach the best performance they can.