After winning second overall for the field show “En Garde” at the Bands of America (BOA) Northern California Regionals at San Jose State University on Oct. 22, the marching band is now preparing for this weekend’s Southern California regionals at Long Beach on Oct. 28-30.

At NorCal Regionals, the band won first overall in the preliminary round for their class.

During finals, in which the top 10 bands of various classes competed against each other, the band garnered awards for Best Music and Best Visuals, and placed second overall behind Clovis West High School.

“They did phenomenal and it was one of their strongest performances,” associate band director Jason Shiuan said. “They marched well, they played great and there were lots of sound and energy.”

Some band members, however, were disappointed with their placement because the band won first overall last year.

“People were disappointed we got second and blamed the judges because we lost by 0.8 of a point,” drum major senior Adrianna White said. “However, I’m so proud of the band and what they accomplished.”

With just three practices between the NorCal and SoCal

Regionals, the band is now fine-tuning its show according to the NorCal regionals judges’ feedback.

According to Shiuan, the SoCal regionals usually involve many more bands than the NorCal competition, and the SoCal bands are also much larger.

“It’s a different lot of bands, which is really exciting for us because we see the bands we watched last Saturday [at the NorCal competition] regularly,” Shiuan said. “We’re lucky to get to see the bands we’re going to see on Saturday.”

Shiuan, who wants band to be a “home away from home that people love,” stressed that winning is not his main goal.

“All that really matters is that after we play the last note and walk off the field, we feel good about our performance,” Shiuan said. “I don’t care whether we won or lost as long as we felt proud of what we accomplished.”