All the hours put in had finally come to its conclusion, the Lafayette band held their heads high as they walked out of heritage high school that was hosting the assessment of the bands, VOBOTA. According to band members, this collectively was a big deal, like a final push since Mr. Hargis, Lafayette’s band director of 40 years, retired after the season ended. Being a member of the band, I got to witness and be part of the greatness that was seen on November 2nd at assessments.
Even so, the day started early, band members including myself dragged ourselves to the band room to get ready for practice. The sun greeted us as we practiced and marched, there was something different in the air, the energy was motivating and a great push for the long day ahead of us. We finally loaded the buses and headed for VOBOTA (Virgina band and orchestra director’s Assocation). We pulled into the parking lot of the high school and started warming up, a few flags dropped, and some funky notes played. But as our choreographer overseer, Nora said, “Were getting all the funky out right now so we can do our best performance.” Hargis came around and snapped some pictures with the band including us, his “girls” the color guard.
Towards the end of our time warming up we gathered under a big tree where the band was playing and Mr. Hargis gave shared a few encouraging words,” no matter how you do, whether we get that superior or not, you put in the best you could.” Then we were dismissed and took a long walk towards the football field, flag bags and instruments in hand. We got out to the field, everyone took a breath, this was it. Once we finished, there was a smile on everyone’s faces, and anticipation to what the scores would tell us.
We gathered again under that big tree shielding us from the now burningly bright sun, Scores collected. One by one we clapped and cheered, each score reflected our hard work and finally to our surprise, a superior! Not just any superior, the best scores the band had in 21 years! The joy of the moment shared, as a team, will be something I’ll never forget. Everything had led up to this moment, pride in the eyes of every band member.
