Homecoming and A Great Performance at DeKalb

This past week, the Spirit of Woodlan was hard at work learning new drill and fixing trouble areas from the week before. On Friday night, September 16th, the band participated in the annual Homecoming Parade down Main Street in Woodburn. They played the school song, "On Wisconsin."

Cody Groves in a perfect action shot!

After the parade, the students headed back to the school to change into uniforms and get ready for the varsity football game against Southern Wells. The weather was beautiful, and Woodlan dominated on the field. The Spirit of Woodlan took the field at half-time and did a wonderful job. They performed the first two movements of their show in front of the home crowd.

On Saturday morning, September 17, the students had an arrival time at the school of 7:50am. They had a 3.5-hour practice before having lunch together, provided by the parents. They enjoyed a lunch of walking tacos, veggies, fruit, and cookies.

After lunch, the band and guard headed back out to practice field and had another 2 hours of practice before crowding on the the single bus for their ride to DeKalb. One of the two buses was stuck at an event at Homestead and would not be back in time to transport the boys to DeKalb, so they had to join the girls for the ride to DeKalb. As the day was already hot and humid, they were all less-than-thrilled to jam into one bus for the sweaty 45-minute ride. After arriving at DeKalb, the students were all hungry again and had snacks at the buses. They were happy to have blue skies and sunshine this week so they could play their favorite game, Ninja.

All dressed and ready to go!

These kids were feeling extra sassy!

The Kaitlyn's! Katelynn, Caitlyn, Kaitlyn (Katie) and Kaitlyn (Katy) - Four fabulous girls!

This week, the students had plenty of time to get ready before they competed. They took the field at 6:22pm. It was nice to not perform in the heat of mid-day, but it also made for difficult photo-taking as the sky was so bright behind the band! Does anyone remember how HOT it was last year at DeKalb? The weather was much nicer this year! The students all did a great job and made huge improvements over last week! They competed this week against Whitko Marching Pride, Adams Central Squadron of Sound, and Spirit of Triton in Class D.

The Portals of Arcadia screens came in just in time to be displayed this week at competition!

Caitlyn Walter and Riley Saalfrank during their duet.

After our performance, Garrett High School was scheduled to perform next as the only band in their class. They had a rough week the previous week, as they were treated very poorly by their home crowd at a football game. To show solidarity and support for their band members, Cody Groves arranged for our band to be allowed to line the fence and cheer on Garrett during their performance. Our students were happy to cheer loudly for their extended band family! They were so disappointed to hear how badly the Garrett band members had been treated.

The students changed out of uniforms and enjoyed watching other bands throughout the evening. At the awards ceremony, the Spirit of Woodlan won caption awards for Best General Effect and Best Visual in addition to First Place. The Spirit of Triton came in Second Place and won Best Music. Whitko took Third Place, and Adams Central received a participation award.

The Spirit of Woodlan made great strides last week and improved their score quite a bit. This week, they will work to add more to their show before their competition next weekend. On Saturday, September 24, the Spirit of Woodlan will compete at Carroll High School's "Challenge of Bands" against Whitko (5:30pm) and Adams Central (5:45pm) once again. Spirit of Woodlan will perform at 6:00pm. Awards will not take place until 10:15pm, so the students will leave after their performance. Each week, the students make huge improvements and add new features to their show. Please come out to support them and cheer them on!