Mizzou Champion of Champions, the final competition of marching season that occurred on October 18th, the Emerald Regiment placed second in their division and the second best color guard overall in prelims out of twenty six bands, placing them at 8th. With this rank the Emerald Regiment was one of the 10 out of 26 bands to move on to finals, where they placed 6th overall.
“When the students left the field on Saturday night after their final performance, it was electric,” said Patrick Sullivan, the band director for the Emerald Regiment. “There was a buzz of excitement and emotion throughout the band, it was their best show!”
The Emerald Regiment has worked their hardest this season and their hard work has paid off. During marching season, the band practices every morning before school to prepare for upcoming competitions along with having marching band practice over the summer.
“Overall this season the Emerald Regiment did very well considering who we had to compete against. Taking first place in everything at our first competition definitely helped boost our morale,” senior trombone player James Fisher said. “When we went to a competition in Owasso, Oklahoma we competed against some bands that are ranked nationally.”
The Emerald Regiment has taken on four competitions this season, performing their best at the first competition at St.Charles West. At the first competition, they placed first in maroon division, best visual in the maroon division, best music in the maroon division, best music in finals and first place in finals.
“We’ve placed higher in the past but the ranking we received at our final competition was good,” Fisher said. “Considering the bands we were up against. We were competing against at least 40 other bands.”
Although the Emerald Regiment may not have placed as highly as they would have liked this weekend, this past marching season has been a great one.
“Overall they did fantastic this season, it was the best season in the nine years I’ve been here,” Steve Mathews, band director for Emerald Regiment said. “I think just keeping the attitude of working hard, working together and being diligent and persistent will continue to help the Emerald Regiment in the long run,”
Along with Mathews, assistant band director and director of athletic bands Patrick Sullivan agrees this was an outstanding season for the Emerald Regiment.
“This was the hardest working band Rock Bridge has seen for several years. This season the Emerald Regiment has definitely exceeded our potential on the individual level and as a group,” Sullivan said. “Trophies at a competition are by products of that hard work towards our potential and the students have earned several this year.”
As the marching season comes to an end, the Emerald Regiment is already preparing for the next marching season.
“The staff is already hard at work to plan for next year, it almost starts before we are done with the current year,” Sullivan said. “We are taking into consideration the things that went well this year in the design of the show and instruction of the show and will continue to do those things next year. We are always in search of ways to improve the efficiency of rehearsals and searching for innovative ways to design the show so we can provide the best experience for students.”
By Caylea Erickson