Saturday, September 8th, the Spartan Regiment woke up ready and determined to face their first competition of the season. The MEMC O’Fallon Township Competition in O’Fallon, IL hosted the Spartan Regiment on a rainy day to kick off what is expected to be a strong season. Although the Spartan Regiment did not place in their competition, the day served as a gain in many aspects.

“Considering it was our first competition of the season, it went pretty well,” freshman Brady Steele said, a clarinet player for the regiment. “We were lucky enough to get to perform on the field instead of standstill.”

The Regiment placed fifth in their competition, giving the spartans some great feedback on what went wrong during their performance.

“This wasn’t really our fault, but there were a lot of scheduling issues throughout the competition. I think one of the things we could have worked on especially is our range and dynamics. How loud or quiet we were the whole time” junior Jeremy Murray said, who is a sousaphone player in the Regiment.

The band also noticed some qualities other than music in which they can improve after the pilot of their first competition.

“When we were actually on the field, we forgot a lot of our choreography and many people forgot sets, location, and where we’re supposed to be on the field. The way that we moved the beds was kind of off and our movements towards the end were kind of wonky,” Steele said.

Even after all these minor miscalculations, the Regiment is holding their heads high and pushing forward. 

“I think [we] will improve to show that we can do much better than usual, and it’s beautiful when you get everything done,” sophomore and flute player Missouri Douglas said.

The Spartan Regiment will be back in action again at Lafayette on Saturday, September 22nd. Be sure to follow along with the Regiment as they improve their performance with each competition; also follow the links below to support your Spartan Regiment by following the links below:

Spartan Bands Twitter: https://twitter.com/fhcspartanbands?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Spartan Regiment Website: http://www.fhcspartanbands.com/drupal7/

FHC Drumline Youtube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8vzgoZJnMvA-3sMRWXUnIg