Written by: Lydia Styf / Spill editor and Lily Amback / Managing editor
The marching band show this year is titled “Superstitions”. This year’s show will feature songs like: “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Disney’s “Fantasia”, “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson, and the title theme from the TV show “Signs”.
The Marching Dragons feel good about this year and believe they are already ahead of schedule.
“We’re really far ahead of where we were at this point last season,” senior drum major Malina Kehn said. “Mr. (Jon) Carney was telling us last night that, at this point, we have learned more, I think about double the amount of show than we had last season by our first competition.”
The new drum major this year is sophomore Sarah Lukens. In her past seasons, she has marched flute as well as competing in the color guard during their winter season.
“I honestly love doing all of it…but I really like color guard and the drum major is really fun, especially because I get to work with the other two drum majors in the bands and work with them really closely doing some stuff,” Lukens said.
Lukens’ responsibility this year almost doubles. She now gets to work with every section, not just with the flutes, as well as lead practices with her other drum majors: Malina Kehn and junior Maren Kehn.
“Mainly I conduct, but I also have to lead warm-ups, give instructions for where people are going during rehearsals and outside of rehearsal, I have to handle certain issues, like conflicts between people that are affecting practices and sometimes plan things out for rehearsals like figuring out who needs to move from ensemble equipment or move field crew props or who needs to set up drum major podiums for us and all sorts of other things, those kinda things,” Malina Kehn said. “We’re kind of the middle man between Mr. Carney and the kids, so we have to take instructions from him and pass them down and lead everyone but not be directly involved in what they’re doing.”
These responsibilities are vital to keep the Marching Dragons running smoothly during practices, shows and competitions.
“I feel like it’s very helpful to have other people who can help you with things and already have done this before, so they already know what the expectations are and how to deal with certain situations that I haven’t had to deal with yet, and so we kind of just help each other. So, it’s not just one of us dealing with problems. It’s all three of us dealing with things,” Lukens said.
