As marching band begins their pre-season activities for the 2025 field season, the blares of horns, chirps of flutes and sound of flags fluttering in the air can be heard again. Members look forward to meeting new faces and reuniting with familiar ones, under the guidance of a new band director, Matthew Distante.
Distante says he is excited to see what the year holds. As it is his first year taking over the program as the head director, former horn coach Distante predicts that there will be many learning experiences for him. Most of all, he looks forward to working with the leadership team and building a strong community.
“I am very, very excited for this next marching band season,” Distante said. “We have a lot of wonderful leaders going into this next year. The culture is going to be in a great spot, and I think that a lot of students are really excited to kick things back into gear.”
The band expects to tackle improvements such as securing show designs this year with almost 50 more members compared to two years ago, according to drum major and junior Noa Stewart. With more people, the team hopes to stabilize its routines.
“This year, we’re focusing a lot more on the culture aspect of marching band, rather than the competition side,” said Stewart. “Last year we had a lot of moving parts. We had over 30 props in our show, and not a lot of people to carry all those 30 props. So this year, we’re focusing on the kind of ‘bigger is better’ aspect when it comes to show design, rather than smaller and lots of stuff.”
Marching band and color guard members have their eyes set on going to state championships this year, according to color guard captain and junior Chloe McLaughlin. Though preparation for competition is demanding, the community motivates each other through intense rehearsals.
“[Our goal is to] mostly just get better every year,” McLaughlin said. “Hopefully, we can go to state championships this year,” McLaughlin said. “Two years ago we were 11th place on state champs. Last year, we just barely didn’t qualify for state champs.”
The marching band community is closely tight-knit, according to Distante. This year, as the new director, Distante plans to improve many aspects of the band. He also hopes for members to bond over summer break to maintain a strong sense of community.
“Marching band has always been a big family and has always driven home some excellent values in our students,” Distante said. “We are going to focus a lot on accountability, growth and effort, and we are going to focus on serving the school community as a whole.”