State Championships, the one day of our season that determines it all. Every single thing we do leads up to this one point, we are built to be at our best by state. The seniors prepare for the last run of their final show. The freshman prepares for the last run of their rookie year. The band-aids prepare to finish out their starter season, ready to make the jump next year. The directors and adjunct staff are ready to close another successful season. Many people seem to believe that we do what we do for the medals and the trophies, but it’s not just about competitive success. It’s all about the family we build throughout the program. Believing in the experience and getting to perform with some of your closest friends. Remembering the countless hours we put on the field to make every show the best it can be. It’s truly about coming off the field after having the best run of your entire season.
Arriving at the band hall at 5 am, ready for nearly everything, we passed out goodie bags and double-checked that everybody had packed everything they needed the night before. Once everybody was mostly settled, the seniors began to give their state speeches. Many seniors shared their experiences of how this program helped them through the darkest times of their lives and how they are forever grateful for the program and the people in it. My speech was not planned at all until I was pulled up to the front. I managed an embarrassing handful of words and then cried in front of the entire band. Around 6 am, we were done with senior speeches, prayed then loaded the buses. The road trip to Northwest Rankin High School was full of sleep, more tears, and laughter by all of the band students. When we were about 30 minutes out from the school, Mr. Killough asked for everybody to start getting into uniform. We started by changing into our compression shirts, then doing hair and makeup, then putting on bibbers and competition tops.
Once arriving, all percussion and anybody on our loading crew got off the buses to unload all the props and instruments from the trailer and the semi. Some chaperones helped finish show hair and others put together props. I had lost my gloves so I spent some time cutting a new pair with the help of a chaperone. Finally, around 11 am, we lined up and headed to warm up. Wind visual warm-up started with a self-stretch, into running their body routine. After running their body routine, Mr. Fitz ran a couple of show chunks to review the show body and Mr. Killough had us do some marching fundamentals across the floor. Then the woodwind player separated from the brass players to start the music warm-up. In the woodwind circle, we played Remingtons, Harloff exercises, Chicowitz exercises, a Bach chorale, and a couple of chunks of show music. After everybody was warmed up, we all came together into arcs and played through the show before going to the field for a preliminary performance. Our show started smoothly but we quickly experienced technical difficulties. Our solo microphones were cut out throughout the performance. We pushed through and finished as strong as we could.
After returning to the buses, we got burgers for our lunch and had time to just relax. Mr. Killough asked for everybody to sit on the buses in the air conditioning after we were done eating. My bus was nice and cold so many of us grabbed our blankets and took a nap. After a couple of hours of sleeping and cooling down, we put our bibbers back on and went to the stadium at 4 pm. We watched the last couple of bands and waited for a preliminary retreat to start. Everybody in the stands erupted into cheer as the drum majors from each school walked out onto the field. The bottom bands were given recognition, and then the top seven, who were invited to the final performance, were announced 
along with their final performance time. We all anxiously waited, counting down the bands until Hernando was called. After prelims, Hernando was in third place and we would perform again at 8:45 pm. There was disappointment with the results, but it gave us room to improve in our finals run. The band moms passed out Raising Cane’s chicken for dinner, and we had more downtime to relax before the final warm-up.
Around 7:30, we were all back in uniform and lined up to warm up. We did the same visual warm-up as that morning but hit different show chunks based on the judge’s comments. Again, the woodwinds and brass players split into different circles to warm up. Playing the same exercises as before, but again hitting different show chunks. We also spent time making sure everybody was properly tuned to combat the change in temperature from earlier that day. Moving from circles into arcs, we ran the show backward, running some movements of the show entirely and others just hitting certain places. Finishing out our arcs by playing the opening hit, Mr. Killough was ecstatic. Taking his hat off and throwing his arms in the air with pride, he knew we were ready to give it our all. We did our typical “Are you ready?” shout and lined back up to head to the field for our last competition run of Razzmatazz. All the emotions were high as we took the field for one of the last times. The lights shining down on us made everything feel so much bigger than hours before. The drum majors saluted, and the percussion began to play. Every single worry instantly left and it was game time, nothing but smiles. I had nothing left to give by the end of that run. We pushed back to the trailers, and everybody was very emotional. Hugs and tears were shared among everybody, no matter how close they were. We pushed to the finish, and we finally made it.
The final retreat began at 9:30 pm. Standing on the field, time seemed to fly. They called out every placement from seventh to first. Stopping a couple of times in between to announce special awards in the captions of percussion, color guard, general effect, music performance, and visual performance. In the caption of percussion, Hernando placed second behind Desoto Central. Our color guard placed second as well, behind Germantown. We placed third for both general effect and visual performance. For music performance, we placed second, behind Germantown. Finally, it came down to announcing the top three bands. Many of us were prepared for a third-place finish after the results of the special awards. Surprise took over myself and those around me as Desoto Central was announced as the bronze medalist. We had moved up from finals, taking home second place. That was the run of the season, so everything else was left to the judges. We got back to the buses, loaded then left, leaving Razzmatazz to a bittersweet competitive end.
