Band Wins Third Place Trophy at Centennial High

Two weeks after their stunning winnings at Quartz Hill down in the Lancaster area, the Band and Color Guard went to Bakersfield’s Centennial High School to compete in the “Music in Motion” competition. There, they performed in the 2A division.

They did well, but with a greater number of schools competing, they had more to work towards. They came out of the competition with only third place, which went to the Band. The awards this time paled in comparison to the competition three weeks prior in Quartz Hill, but it was not without spirit.

I went to the competition, just like the one in Quartz Hill, and it was certainly larger than the last. Centennial High was hosting five schools in Division 2A, where Burroughs was, along with other divisions with varying numbers of members.

Burroughs played their rendition of music from Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon, side-by-side with the Color Guard. The music sounded quite good, and the performance by the Color Guard was also quite good, as was to be expected. The increased competition made comparisons a bit difficult, however, especially with the size difference—Burroughs was one of the smallest teams there!

Brian Cosner, the director of the Band, explained their preparations for the event.

“We took the judges’ feedback to heart and drilled nearly every single morning for several weeks,” he said. “Some of the judges who remembered us from the previous event commented on the noticeable improvement of our show, which was very encouraging. We significantly increased our overall score since the last competition, which is honestly all we hoped for at the end of the day.”

Color Guard Captain Jessie Bell recounted the team’s efforts.

“Our performance definitely wasn’t our best,” she told us. “Our nerves got to us. If we didn’t have any wait time between lining up and performing, then I think our nerves wouldn’t have gotten so bad. However, I feel like adapting to such circumstances is something that needs practice. We were all so tired from our long day that we got right onto the bus, bundled up, and conked out.”

Bell also noted that they were missing one member. 

“She had something going on with her family,” she said. “We missed her a lot, and we tried our hardest to make her proud.”

Now the competitors are turning their attention to upcoming performances.

“We now have a few weeks to focus on concert pieces for our end-of-semester performance at the Burroughs PAC on Nov. 30 before flying to Hawaii on Dec. 5 to perform in the Pearl Harbor Commemoration Ceremony,” said Cosner.