Band and color guard have been practicing hard for competitions and performances during school events. 

   There are 159 students that are members of the Golden Arrow Marching Band and 29 students are part of our color guard team. Recently, they have participated in a competition in Ozark.

    This competition was called Pride of the Ozarks. It took place on September 30 of this year. Band and color guard competed against 14 other bands and won first place. 

  Sophomore, April Wiseley is a band member who participated in this competition.   

   “Band competitions are a really great experience. It’s great getting to see all those different shows happening, and you get to see what you are up against,”  Wiseley said.

   Some of the schools band was against in this competition were, Nixa High School, Ozark High School, and Camdenton High School . 

   “You normally see some of the same bands in later contests. Like we are going to Branson this weekend and we will see Ozark there,” Wiseley said.

    When asked if winning a band competition is a big deal,

   “Yes! Our trophy is huge and it shows all the hard work we put in. Because we have been working so hard since June,” Wiseley said.

   She also said that the reasons they won this competition were because of their band director, Mr. Scriven, and their collective motivation to win.

   “We won because we had a great performance. We executed it better than other teams,” sophomore band member Kenion Bluford said.

 “We won this competition last year too. It’s kind of an ongoing streak that we win. We put even more effort and work into this year’s show than last year. I just hope we keep getting better and better,” sophomore band member Natalee Relihan said.

   Color guard attends these competitions with band, performing with the live music provided by band.

    “Color guard and marching band all work together to create a huge show. We started working on this current show in June. It’s called the Butterfly Effect,” sophomore color guard member Lyndsey Young said. 

   Recently, our school band and color guard attended another competition on the seventh of October where they placed fourth. 

   “There were 22 bands and only 12 made it to finals and we placed fourth! I am happy we placed fourth because the other bands that were there were a lot bigger. We definitely deserved it and it’s a good place to get in the middle of the season,” senior color guard member Ivy Ohrenberg said.

   “We made finals last weekend too and we were pretty satisfied with that. I just hope that all our hard work continues to pay off,” Bluford said.