The marching band regained the title again this year. After finishing in second place last year, they were named the A Class Champions in this year’s 2019 NWAPA Championships, hosted at the University of Oregon. 

     The band spent many long hours over the course of the fall practicing and performing at different competitions along with at football games for a halftime show. The team continues to add to their success that started in 2000 by bringing home their 12th Class A Championship, the most of any sport in school history. 

     There are three different classes are based off of the size of the bands. Tigard’s single A class is the smallest, but it is competitive.The competition tends to fluctuate, with the closest schools to Tigard being Glencoe and Aloha. 

      Even though it is a successful program in winning many championships over the years, the band hasn’t attracted robust numbers pushing it into a larger class. Both seniors Natalie Scharn and Trinity Henderson said that the problem starts at the middle schools and that they are not getting as many freshmen to join the band program as they would hope for each year. 

     The color guard was made up of only three students this year. Marching band allows both 8th graders and Tualatin students to join them because it helps add to their numbers. Since Tualatin does not have a competitive marching band, its students can join.

     “The size of our ensemble is getting smaller every year. And that starts to get really hard when it comes to instrumentation,” junior Braden Kilpatrick said. 

     Head Drum Major, senior Scharn held the highest student leadership role in band not only this year but as a junior as well. 

     “I mostly conduct/lead the band but I also talk a lot with [the] staff and help with the overall managing of the students,” Scharn said. 

     Other seniors that led the charge were Henderson who is the trumpet section leader. 

     “Partially the band just felt different from my perspective because I was at the top of the pyramid… It felt scary to no longer have someone a grade above me to look up to,” Henderson said. 

     “It’s always sad when old members leave so making the most of the people you have is everything when you’re in any type of band,” sophomore Harrison Tye said. 

     “Being on this team is by far the best decision I have ever made,” Henderson said. “Just having this common interest with 40 other people about something that you all love so much is really surreal.”

     The community and the experience is a special part of being a member of the band. 

     “My favorite moment of the season was being able to see how much we had accomplished at the end of the year and how proud everyone was,” sophomore Jakob Sanders said.

     A smaller team allowed younger students to jump into leadership roles sooner.

     “The hardest part was figuring out how to lead successfully. It’s really common for leaders to just become abusive or rude, and that’s the opposite of how I wanted to lead,” sophomore DJ Johnston said. Johnston was training as a Drum Major under Scharn who has held the position for the past two years.