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Minarets And Yosemite Marching Bands Together

minarets-and-yosemite-marching-bands-with-francisco-marquezBy Natasha Lucas and Willow Sanchez — 

O’NEALS — While two local football teams took their rivalry to the field, others were united for a rare dual appearance. On Friday Sept. 22, 2016, the marching bands from both Minarets and Yosemite high school joined together for a performance at Minarets. The last time they played in unison was Veterans Day, 2014.

On this particular Friday night, both bands played the national anthem and two pep songs, Blue 1 and 2. The conductor of both bands was the Yosemite High School band teacher, Francisco Marquez.

“Yes, we were excited but also apprehensive,” said one Yosemite band member, “We didn’t know how tense the bands would be with each other. The bands are similar in that we both have strong friendships with people in each of our bands.”

The YHS band member continued, “I saw a few really old friends who I wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t have come to the game with the band and I’d like to think I made a couple new friends. I did enjoy the time at Minarets. It was really fun and a good, exciting experience. I thought that minarets had a nice campus and a diverse and fun student body.”

We made the environment more enjoyable for both bands, players and audience.

Another band member from YHS added, ”I was excited to play with Minarets because I think it is always fun to play with other bands, and others also seemed excited.” Lily Dickmeyer shared the commonalities between the two bands.

“In some ways, the bands are pretty similar, there were a lot of similar instruments and some we didn’t have. Our uniforms were also pretty similar in style and appearance.”

Despite the rivalry between the two teams, the bands were able to put away their differences and focus on their music.

Members from the Minarets band responded to similar questions. Summer Woods, a saxophone player for Minarets commented, “I would say the people from both bands were excited to play with each other. Our attitudes are pretty similar, but there’s just so many of them! It was intimidating at first but then I was fine with it, I made some new friends.”

Flute player, Mikayla (Mika) G. added, “Yes, the bands were similar in the ways that we all love our instruments and band crew as family. I personally thought that YHS was very fun and enjoyable to have with our band.”

At the end of the night everyone from both of the bands had fun. Even though Minarets didn’t win the game, they had a great time.

Natasha Lucas and Willow Sanchez are Minarets band members enrolled in Creative Writing

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