December 2007 News

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

San Marcos Wins Marching Band Championship and the Next Stop is Miami Florida’s Orange Bowl

On Saturday, December 1, the San Marcos High School Marching Band participated in state championships sponsored by the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association at Murietta Valley High School and received the top honor, First Place Gold Medalist. High school marching bands from California compete on Saturdays all fall for the opportunity to be invited to the prestigious championship event. The ten bands with the highest fall season qualifying scores receive invitations to championships.

The next stop for the San Marcos band is performing at the Miami Florida Orange Bowl on January 3, 2008. They will participate in a field show competition held between the ten bands chosen for the event. The winner gets to perform their show for part of the pre-game entertainment. Then all ten bands will join together to make one giant marching band and they will perform during the Orange Bowl half-time, immediately following guest artist ZZ Top. Thus far the band has fund raised over $100,000 dollars and has about $10,000 left to finish paying for the trip.

The band has worked very hard this fall season to perfect its field show “Journey of Dreams” which has original music composed for the band by local resident and marching band consultant Lozell Henderson. They practice each day for 90 minutes and on Tuesday nights for three hours. Practices began back in June. The San Marcos Marching Band is under the direction of Dan Garske and Jason Nam, both San Marcos High School alumni. Final results for Saturday’s Championship contest were:

San Marcos, 77.50 First Place, Gold Medal
La Puente, 75.30 Second Place, Silver Medal
Norco, 75.00 Third Place, Bronze medal
Western, 72.85 Fourth Place
Dos Pueblos, 71.75 Fifth Place
Capistrano Valley, 71.60 Sixth Place
Garfield, 71.60 Seventh Place
Eastlake, 71.20 Eighth Place
La Mirada, 70.50 Ninth Place
Gladstone, 68.20 Tenth Place