The THS marching band started their season very strong with an extremely successful competition at the Pacific Coast Invitational at Sprague High School on Oct. 1.

Marching band competitions are divided into two portions. In preliminary competition, bands are divided into three classes based on the size of the band. Tigard is in “A” class because they only have about 50 people. “AA” and “Open” class are for bands of a larger size. In the first round of competition, bands only compete against bands in the same class, so Tigard competed against Glencoe High School, Hillsboro High School and Sheldon High School.

Tigard’s show is entitled “Say Anything,” a reference to the John Cusack movie. While only in its early stages, the show is about raising your voice and allowing your voice to be heard. Some musical selections include “Hopeless Wanderer” by Mumford and Sons, “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel and “Falling Slowly” from the indie movie Once.

Their preliminary performance was bogged down by several complications because of the weather. Heavy winds knocked over the keyboard, smashing some equipment, rain soaked the front ensemble’s instruments, requiring an on-the-spot repair as the marching band was moving onto the field to perform.

Complications aside, Tigard came away in 1st place in overall preliminary competition while also claiming 1st place in every caption, the subsets of the larger score that are divided into percussion, color guard, visual, music and general effect.

In the final portion of marching band competitions, every band competes against each other regardless of size, so Tigard also competed against North Salem High School, St. Helens High School, Roseburg High School, Willamette High School, McNary High School and Grant’s Pass High School.

“We did much better [in finals] than we did in prelims. We stayed in time better and just generally committed to the quality of our performance better,” junior Kristina Lee said. “In prelims, a lot of people were unfocused and weren’t in the moment of the performance, but in finals everyone was closer to being on their game.”

Despite competing against bands almost three times their size, THS still came in 4th place overall, beating every “A” class band and three “AA” class bands in the process. Further, the percussion section and color guard came in 2nd place in their respective captions, being only narrowly edged out by “Open” class band Grant’s Pass.

The marching band has competitions at Hillsboro Stadium on Oct. 22, 29 and Nov. 5. They still have a lot of work to do, but their success at Sprague is a great way to start out their season.