Congrats to Mission Viejo High School Marching Band!

I just spent all day at Veteran's Stadium in Long Beach for the Western Band Association State Finals. My kid's band, Mission Viejo, came in third with a very impressive performance. Nice job, kids!

The day started out hot, got hotter, and then when the sun went down got freezing cold. Early in the afternoon we had some band members getting dehydrated, and by the time the awards were presented at 10:30 pm, they were chilling. A long, long day.

Marching season is now over, though the band may still perform at a couple of football playoff games, and they usually march down Main Street at Disneyland in January. They've been at it since mid-August and have really worked their tails off. Now they can take it a little easier.

Congratulations again to the Mission Viejo High School Marching Band and Color Guard on a great season!

UPDATE Sunday morning after I pried my eyes open: I wrote the first part of this a little before midnight after a long day of working at the WBA finals. The kids didn't actually get home until 2am, and they were dragging.

It was a long day for all of us. I worked most of the day in staging - getting the bands on and off the field on time, and also spent some time with Mrs. HolyCoast on the entry gate. She pulled a 4 hour shift at the front gate with the sun beating down on her, and then joined me in staging for the rest of the evening.

The day was not without incident. We had a few minor medical crises - mostly dehydrated kids, and one potentially major crisis when a band booster from another school appeared to be having a stroke. Hopefully he'll be alright.

My hat's off to the dozens of Mission parents who pulled hours of duty all day just because they love their kids and the kid's band program. We have a very dedicated bunch of boosters at Mission, and they're good people to work with.

And of course, the kids couldn't begin to perform at this level without the help of the dedicated teachers and instructors who have been working with them since the summer to perfect the show. The goal of the instructors is to bring everything together and have them march their very best show the night of the finals, and they did that this year.

I almost went down in Mission history. During the preliminary competition, I took over the final field staging for awhile, which means it was my job to get the next band in place, and then clear them to take the field. Because each performance must fall within a specific timeline, bands cannot enter the field until the field judge waves them on, or they risk a penalty.

Logan High School, the eventual winner of the event and the major rival to Mission, was standing by waiting for my signal, and due to the sun angle, I was having trouble seeing the field judge. I thought I saw her waving the band on, and I told the director to proceed.

She actually wasn't ready and was signaling for something else. Fortunately for all of us, it took the band a little longer to get lined up and didn't enter the field prematurely. Otherwise, I might have cost them the title, which would have moved Mission up in the standings, but might have gotten me banned for life from the WBA. Such is the life of a band parent.

Three more band seasons to go....