A Day to Perform for the Community

This past weekend was an off-weekend from competitions, but these band students know no downtime! I say it all the time, but these students are the hardest workers around! On Friday night, October 21st, Woodlan hosted the Varsity Sectional Football game against Concordia High School. The band does not perform at Sectional games, so the Senior members of the band are then required to work the concession stand for the evening. They requested help from a few juniors as well, and one sophomore then decided he wanted to join the fun too! Despite Woodlan's loss, the students all had a fun evening running concessions, even when it got completely hectic during halftime! They always find a way to have fun together and display excellent teamwork while doing so!

Saturday morning, October 22nd, the Spirit of Woodlan members arrived at the school at 7:45 to spend their morning practicing. It was a beautiful day, though a bit too windy. They ran rehearsals until Noon, when they took a break for lunch.

After lunch, the students changed into their uniforms and got ready to have their pictures taken. Varsity Photo was super helpful and got everyone taken care of for individual, sectional, and full-band photos.

(This was just a picture I snapped as they were getting ready to get their picture taken, the official one will be coming later!)

After individual, full-band, and sectional photos, the students finished getting ready for their performance and took the field just before 3pm. They performed their show twice for the community crowd, who had gathered to cheer them on. It was a gorgeous day, and there was a great turn-out there to support the band. The band hosted their annual Andy's Knockout Chicken Fundraiser at the same time, and it was a big success for the band. The band and guard did a wonderful job during their performances, and provided great entertainment for family and friends who might not otherwise be able to travel to competitions. As a member of the Pit Crew, I personally love the Community Performance, because it it one of the only times during the season that the pit crew can sit in the stands and just enjoy the show. I was amazed at all of the new features I saw during the show by watching higher in the stands than when I'm down on the track watching from ground level. I was even more amazed by all the awesome things that these kids do! What great performers! After the performance, drinks and desserts were provided for all of the supporters, and the students returned to the band room to change out of their uniforms. They were dismissed then to go home, get changed into Halloween Costumes, and gather back at the Slattery barn for the annual Halloween Party later that evening. Those pictures deserve their own blog post, which will be ready soon!

There was a great turn-out by supporters from the community!

This upcoming week is a very big, and often very stressful, week for these students. They will be performing at the ISSMA Semi-State Competition at Franklin Community High School in Franklin, IN, this upcoming Saturday, October 29, 2022. There will be a total of 20 bands in Class D performing for the Top 10 spots in the state, who will then advance to the Marching Band State Finals to be held at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, November 5, 2022. The Spirit of Woodlan will be performing at 4:45pm. Class D performances begin with Alexandria-Monroe at 1:00pm and conclude with Awards at 7:00pm. The students will be pushing harder than ever before at practices this week to give it all they've got at Semi-State this weekend with hopes to advance to State competition. Please help support these great students this week in any way you can. They are all exhausted and excited all at the same time! They have what it takes to be State Finalists, now they will just have to show that to the judges! I hope to see you at Franklin, cheering on this great group of students!