Crowds cheering, the band marches into the field. Anticipation high for the last competition of the year, they left-face and start progressing towards the audience and the judges.

The Fort Hays State University High Plains Marching Festival took place throughout the day on Monday.

Out of six judges (one for auxiliary, percussion, general affect, marching and maneuvering and two for music) the band received six superior ratings, receiving an overall rating of superior. This is the highest rating available.

“It was a collaborative effort of everyone in the band to come together and work hard,” junior drum major Jacob Balzer said. “There was lots of practice, time and talent from everyone.”

The performance is considered by many to be a step up from that at the WAC Marching Festival last Tuesday where the band received a II rating.

“Our performance improved,” Balzer said. “I felt that in the practices in between we fixed a lot and learned a lot from what the judges said at WAC.”

Junior Kaelan Dietze also believes the FHSU competition went better than at WAC.

“I saw that my group has improved on stepping off and staying in sync,” Dietze said. “At WAC we weren’t way off, but it could have been better, myself included. I wish we could have practiced more.”

Dietze played the melephone solo on “Love Me Tender/Hound Dog,” the last drill of the show.

“I would do it differently given the chance,” Dietze said.

While Dietze would have done his solo differently, Balzer found both the high and low point of the show in the last drill.

“My favorite part has always been at the end of “Hound Dog” when we go into the triplets and the high step marching,” Balzer said. “I think if I had to pick a low point of the show it would have been in “Love Me Tender” during the part when we all spread out and try to stay together.”

The dance team also performed in the show, dancing a routine to “Great Balls of Fire,” the second drill of the show.

“Dance team only competes in FHSU Marching Festival and WAC each year so It’s nice to be recognized for what we do and to see our friends in band honored for hard work,” senior dancer Breanne Kruse said. “It’s nerve-wracking but a fun experience every year.”

Kruse said the dance team first learned the dance approximately four weeks ago.

“We have been cleaning it at practice since then to get the routine as good as we can,” Kruse said.

Balzer thinks the performance went well and would not change anything given the chance.

“I thought we had a great performance,” Balzer said. “The judges agreed with us.”

14awalters@usd489.com