The marching band advanced to finals at the Area D UIL competition for the second time since the school opened, Oct. 26. They finished fifth out of 23 bands in the preliminary round, and seventh in finals. The last time the band advanced to finals was in 2011.

The band was able to advance to Area after they scored a First Division at the UIL Region Contest the week before.

“I felt that we tried our hardest and we couldn’t have done better,” freshman Mendi James said. “We did amazing overall.”

The band’s success at Region had them pumped to do better at the Area competition.

“I thought it was way better than anything else we had ever done,” junior Makenna Sanders said. “It showed how much we had improved as a whole since the first year the school was open and even last year.”

The competition left most band students feeling accomplished and pleased with their performance.

“All the four months of hard work finally paid off,” senior John Smith said. “It was cool that we finally made area since it’s my senior year and also my last year in the band.”

The band’s next competition will be the Bands of America Super-Regional at the Alamodome, Nov. 1-2.