Marching Mustangs at NIU, Zach Football, and Tailgate
Today, the Metea Valley High School Marching Mustangs went to a competition at Northern Illinois University (NIU) to perform. They didn’t “officially compete” but were on the program to give them a competition-like experience. The Fine Arts Department Chair, Mr. Devany (who is also the band director), doesn’t really believe in the full-fledged “competition model” and so the marching band won’t be doing any of these, but go and participate anyway.
The girls got up to the high school early to warm up and get dressed in their uniforms. I arrived with the rest of the “Pit Crew” shortly thereafter, and we got the bus loaded up with all the pit instruments. Mr Schneider, one of the band directors got a present for his son and decided to put it on himself! It was hilarious watching him dancing around singing Winnie the Pooh! 🙂
When we arrived, we got everything unloaded and got ready to perform. The staging area was quite a walk from the stadium, so we had to wheel the pit carts quite a ways. 🙂 Brittany was really excited to be there and really likes hanging out with her fellow pit members.
The kids performed BEAUTIFULLY and they sounded amazing! Since I was down on the field, I didn’t get any good pictures of the whole area, but did get a couple with Sarah and Brittany both in the shot. I’m trying to find a video of the performance if possible and will try and publish the link.
After the performance, we hurried and packed all the equipment on the carts, wheeled it back over and packed up the truck. The girls stayed after that and watched a few of the performances. I left to hurry and get back to Zachary’s football game and tailgate party.
Zach played great! They lost again, but that’s OK. He is having fun and that’s all that matters. He is still the starting Center and loves it. They have a REALLY small team compared to the others that they play. Some of the teams that they have played look like they have 2nd and 3rd graders on the team. It’s crazy! I guess we just breed them smaller in our neck of the woods. We originally thought that Zach was big and built like a football player, but after seeing a bunch of the kids he has to go up against, he doesn’t look so large! 🙂
After the game, the team had a great tailgate party with hot dogs and brats. There were a ton of desserts, chips, drinks and everything. The kids probably loved that more than the game! 🙂 Kirstyn and Ben had a great time eating too!
