For years, the Warren Township High School Marching Band has traveled across the state to compete in local and state-wide competitions. You may have seen this year’s show, “Rise”,  during halftime at one of the football games.

Unfortunately, this may have been the last year that Warren was to have a Competition Band for the foreseeable future, due to budget cuts. But that didn’t stop them from going out with a bang.

On October 23rd, the band had a long day, competing in two state championships. The Devils started off strong in the Illinois State University Competition, earning a 73 out of a possible 100 points in their first run. That was enough to earn them a seventh place finish, but it wasn’t quite enough to get them to finals.

But the true showing of talent came later in the night, when the Devils went to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to compete in their last performance of the season. And they left everything they had on the field. In their best showing all year, the Marching Devils earned an 83.75, enough to earn them a second place slot in their class, which had competitor bands such as Fremd & Mundelein in it.

When we asked the students how they felt about ending the season, all responses were positive, yet melancholic. 

Analisa Cress, a soloist of the show and one of the band’s talented mellophone players, remarked that “the ending of the season was super bittersweet for me; it was my first and last comp season, and it was probably one of the best experiences of my high school career. As for next year, if we are unable to have a competition season, it would be extremely disappointing, but I believe that we can make a similar experience out of non-comp.”

Yesenia Ruiz, a junior, felt a similar way: “I was very proud of us because we came together and we did something that we could be proud of, and we really worked hard for it. I am happy with our placement because I thought we were going to do much worse based on previous performances” she said with a laugh. “As for next year, It would make me incredibly sad if we did not have a competition band. It was one of highlights of my high school music career”.