By Sierra Williams
Staff Writer
Costa Marching Band and Colorguard won five awards for their performance of this year’s show, “Electropolis,” at the South Bay Invitational Field Tournament on Sept. 29 at West Torrance High School.The Marching Band won first place overall in the Music Sweepstakes, General Effect Sweepstakes and Tournament Sweepstakes and second place in Percussion.
The Mira Costa Colorguard received its first Sweepstakes award for Auxiliary, meaning Costa was the best of all Colorguard performances at the competition.
“The Colorguard team has gotten first place before but never has received an overall award,” Colorguard captain senior Rachel Azafrani said. “I’m really honored to be captain of the first Mira Costa guard to do this, and I can’t wait to see what happens next if we’re this successful so early in the Colorguard season.”
Azafrani feels that both the band and Colorguard worked hard to prepare for their competitions, and both came away from it successfully. The band and Colorguard practice their routines for over 20 hours a week.
“I don’t think people recognize how physically demanding and time-consuming Colorguard really is,” Azafrani said. “Every band worked hard to win this Invitational Field Tournament and laid their talents out there, but our band managed to come out on top of all the others.”
The band has been practicing for the 2012 season since July 2012. They trained at band camp over the summer, in addition to Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday practices that are being held until the end of November.
“We ran the show a lot of times before the actual performance, and the run-through of the show at the end of this practice was the best show we have ever had,” Drum major Isaac Siegemund-Broka said. “It was an excellent show, and most things that we had practiced really came though in the end.”
Mira Costa Band director Joel Carlson believes that “Electropolis” will be a highly rewarding project for the Marching Band and that the show has already given them a lot of admiration throughout the entire music community.
“Despite the difficulty of the competition, I am really proud of the Mira Costa Band members and proud of all that they have been able to accomplish so far this year,” Carlson said.
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