PHS band to compete Saturday

STAFF WRITER

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The Portales High School marching band will be competing Saturday in Albuquerque with 30 other high school bands to showcase their work and push themselves toward higher achievements, according to students.

Staff photo: Eamon Scarbrough

The Portales High School Marching Band practices Thursday morning for the 39th Annual Zia Marching Band Fiesta Saturday in Albuquerque. According to Band Director Jennifer Johnson, the band will compete against 30 other marching bands from across New Mexico and Texas.

The 39th Annual Zia Marching Band Fiesta at the University of New Mexico’s University Stadium will feature 30 competing marching bands from across New Mexico and Texas, according to PHS Band Director Jennifer Johnson.

“It’s a high level competition, and it pushes us to the next level, pushes us to perform at a higher level. It just gives us a great opportunity to see others perform,” she said.

Johnson noted that the band has been working for several months on the material they will be performing at the competition.

“The incoming rookies started in May, right after school was out, met for a week and everyone came together July 25. It’s fundamentals: Learning all the fundamentals of movement, then going back and learning the fundamentals of playing altogether,” she said.

Several members of the band expressed the excitement of being able to showcase their work on the public stage.

“I really want to showcase our show and show everyone how hard we’ve been working. I think this is important, because after you put in that much work, you deserve a chance to go out and show everyone that you’re at the same level as other bands that have competed and that have worked just as hard as you,” said 16-year-old drum major Ashrey Shah, a junior.

Color guard member Dommonique Wheeler, 16, also a junior, was looking forward to seeing the band’s hard work pay off.

“I’m excited to see how well we do when we get to contest, because we’ve been working really hard since the middle of summer,” she said. “We just want to show how hard we’ve been working and how much we love band and how much we love marching.”

The importance of the competition was not lost on any of the students.

“It’s state, and we’re at UNM’s stadium, so it’s important to all of us, because we’ve worked so hard. We just like to show off and see where we are,” said 16-year-old junior and drum line member Emily Cota.

Johnson said she was proud of the amount of work that her students have put into preparing for the competition.

“It is a very talented group, a very dedicated, very hardworking group. It’s a group with a strong personality. They want things to get done, and they want to achieve high standards,” she said.