Weston participated in marching band this year, playing the baritone (because they didn't have trombones in marching band). It was a long season, with lots of time commitments. It started the second week of August with a week of mandatory band camp. He practiced from 9:30am-noon, 1:30-4:00pm, and then 5:30-8:00pm on Monday through Friday (7.5 hours total each day). They did a short performance for the parents on Friday evening. The next week (and first week of school), he played at the first football game. During August-October, he played with the band in 7 Friday night football games. He had to be there from 5:00pm until around 10:00pm (5-hour commitment). Also, every Monday night from August 25th-November 17th, he had 3 hours of practice from 6:00-9:00pm (13 nights of 3-hour practices). He also participated in jazz band, so he did 2 hours of practice on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, from 3:30-5:30 (four hours a week), right after cross country practice. That's why he ran home for a sandwich a few times. On October 18th, Weston participated with the marching band in his first band competition. These usually lasted most of the day (12-16 hour Saturdays). He did 4 of these field competitions. The last one before championships got rained out. Alex and I went and brought Weston back from the overnight competition that included Disneyland on Sunday. Besides being something we don't do on Sunday, we also didn't want to pay the extra money for it ($360). We still had to pay $150 for the bus and food for Saturday. Weston did end up eating 12 tacos from the taco truck that night (and Alex and I ate 2 tacos each as parent clean-up helpers), so I guess that's where our money went for that day - $150 for a one-way bus ride and 16 tacos!
They qualified for the Division 2A band championships. They had to make the top 12 of 42 bands to qualify. At the championship, they were awarded 9th out of the 12 bands. Overall, they were 9th out of 42 bands in the 2A Division, so they did really well. Their performance piece this year was Mary Poppins, and they did 5 movements. Their last performance was on December 8th, which was a showcase featuring 3 of the local high school marching bands. One of our friends, Maggie, was in one of the other bands. It was fun to watch all of the performances.
It wasn't that fun to drive 1-2 hours to watch a 10-minute performance for the field competitions and pay for parking and admission. Marching band isn't a cheap thing to participate in. We paid $475 for the season, along with $20 for a show t-shirt. Admission to the competitions was $20 a piece, with parking fees (and gas to get there). I went to 3 of the 4 competitions. We paid a total of $335 for the championship competition ($150 fee, we had to rent a car + gas, $40 entrance, and a $45 hoodie). At the end of the season, we paid $52 to get the uniform dry-cleaned. Estimated total costs for the season was a minimum of $930, not including gas. Aside from the money, Weston spent an estimated 175 hours for marching band season (not including jazz band). The time commitment has him questioning his participation next year, but he did work hard and enjoyed learning a new instrument and getting to know the band director and fellow band mates. There were 3 other people that played the baritone and he got to know them pretty well. Our friend Emily, a senior this year, was one of his fellow baritone players.
No comments:
Post a Comment