Friday, April 26, 2024
Dedication, hard work and the ability to overcome adversity helped the Gatesville High School Marching Band achieve a goal few bands in the state accomplish — the opportunity to compete in the UIL state contest.
Twenty-nine of the best competed on Oct. 29, and Gatesville was rated among the top five, which earned the Hornets the right to compete at state. The state contest will be Nov. 9 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
This is the first time in more than a decade that Gatesville's band has advanced to state. The other two times were in 2004 and 2008. Sanchez said the GHS band has never been in the state finals, and is hoping to achieve that this year.
In addition to musicians, the color guard, dance team, directors, assistants and family members all played a role in helping the GHS band program reach this lofty milestone. Following the announcement in area competition, those associated with the band felt a surge of excitement and energy that kept them up well past midnight.
"We still have not come down from that feeling," said head band director Jose Sanchez, whose bands at Gatesville have come tantalizingly close in the past and which finally managed to earn the long-awaited prize.
It took a monumental effort and the ability to overcome some unexpected challenges for the band to succeed.
"Everything that could have gone wrong in that first run (at the area contest) did," Sanchez said. A prop used in the performance broke in the heavy wind conditions and one instrument stopped working properly, but undeterred, the band continued to persevere and perform.
To help fix the prop, parents were involved in finding materials at a hardware store and also driving back to Gatesville to help resolve the issue.
"We had so much go wrong and the kids did not feel good after the preliminaries," Sanchez said. "The parental support we had was absolutely fantastic and just amazing."
Gatesville is part of a band area that covers a significant geographic area, stretching from Fredericksburg in the south to Springtown in the north and east toward the Houston area. Sanchez said the area is also packed with several outstanding bands.
"This area generally puts three bands into the state finals," he said. "There are some truly outstanding bands in our area."
"It's been a mad dash trying to get everything ready," Sanchez said. He and other directors were scrambling to make arrangements for the state contest in the wee hours of the morning after returning from the area competition.
"I didn't leave (the band hall) until 2:45 a.m.," Sanchez said.
The achievement not only shows the talent and commitment of the band, color guard and Dazzlers, it showed that the Gatesville performers were able to successfully compete against larger schools for the honor of advancing to state.
Assistant band director Michael Hamilton noted that Gatesville was the only Division II school in the area contest to advance. The other bands were from schools in the larger Division I classification.
Sanchez said when results are announced, there is a countdown from the top 10 and Gatesville students became more and more excited as it progressed.
"When we got to No. 6, our kids were on the edge of their seats because we've been there — on the outside looking in — before," he said. "For them to hear somebody else was sixth and know we finally made it was amazing."
Sanchez said the program focuses on putting together the best musical and visual performance possible.
"We want to provide the best experience from the audience's perspective, and these kids have really worked hard," he said. "They knew they had done their very best and left it all out on the field. They performed their hearts out. They knew they had put together the very best performance they could have put on, and that was pretty special to me as the head director.
"This group of seniors was the first group I ever taught as seventh-graders at Gatesville. It was wonderful to see them lead that type of performance."
At an earlier competition this fall, Sanchez said the band didn't do as well as expected, but that only served as motivation for the area contest.
"That was probably the best thing that could have happened to us," he said. "After that they put their heads down and worked hard to get to that next level. The following week we went to another contest and were beating 5A and 6A schools. We finished right behind Kennedale (which had advanced to state several years in a row)."
A busy schedule that was disrupted multiple times by thunderstorms the week leading up to the contest made preparation more challenging, but that only helped the band push through when adversity arose during their first performance.
"These kids are super resilient," Sanchez said. "They've been great in understanding and dealing with change and very flexible. They kept going no matter what challenges arose.
"This is something we're super proud of. We're the ones who came up with the concept (based on celebrating Hispanic heritage via music, dance and visuals) and put it all together. It's definitely been a passion project. We helped come up with the idea of a Homecoming Fiesta this year as part of the process.
"It's also been exciting to see the parents and members of the community get so excited and involved and the passion they have. I am super proud of them and the kids."
Assistant director Victor Garza said the idea for this year's state qualifying production arose from the disappointment of a near miss in advancing to state a year ago.
"The day after we did not make it to state last year, it fueled the fire to make sure we got over that hump," Garza said.
Sanchez said he initially wanted to take a week off from focusing on band competitions after last season's area contest, but also found himself being drawn into preparing for this year.
"The next day we were back at it," he said. "It's been huge and a lot of commitment. We had mini camps in June to talk about concepts. We're the largest spirit organization on campus and we're pulled in so many different directions. We're not just a competition marching band."
As for the closeness of the program, "We're family," Sanchez said. "The support we get here is incredible. It has taken a lot to get to this point, but it's been worth it. Hopefully, this is just the first of many (trips to state)."
