On Sunday Nov. 5. 66 students who were members of the Pirate’s Marching Band (PMB) sat on an A-1 Limousine ready for a two -hour and 30 minute bus ride to Hersheypark Stadium for their final competition of the season.
Michaela “Miki” Schnitzer (‘25) one of the two conductors of the band, said that during the bus ride students were “trying to get into the mindset of getting ready to compete.”
The PMB entered Hersheypark Stadium for their last competition of the season. According to Hersheypark’s website, the stadium has a capacity of 16,841 people, about 12 times the size of South’s football field, for students to participate in during the Atlantic Coast Championships (ACC) and compete against schools from across the East Coast. During this competition, PMB scored 93.
The PMB believes that there are many reasons that contributed to the exceptional performance this year.
Prarthana Harikrishanan (‘25) said in an email interview, “We [spent] more than 14 hours a week in the blazing hot sun, and the coldest and windiest days on the turf, and we knew that if we wanted to succeed that we could not let the weather deter our performance.”
Not only did the amount of practice help the PMB be successful at the competition, but their ability to use their mistakes as a resource to improve helped them with their performance at the ACCs.
Mr. Jacob Moore, Orchestra teacher and Assistant Marching Band Director , credited the students ability to be “exceptionally good at recovering” from their mistakes to their success during the competition, as they were more focused on playing than achieving a good score.
After the ACCs competition was over, as the Pirates Sailed out of Hersheypark Stadium they took
home a new title. The PMB was promoted to Open Class Band, which according to the Tournaments of Band Website, is the title for bands that have experienced group and staff. Harikrishnan said that leaving the ACC was “bittersweet” as she was “so used to going to competitions every Saturday,” that knowing the fact she no longer was going to competitions was a “hard pill to swallow.”
As the Pirates swallowed this pill, they were able to take home memories from competitions. These include hanging out with each other before competitions, getting to meet members of marching bands from other schools, touring Hersheypark Chocolate World and so much more with them as they sailed out of this experience.
