Revealing marching show magic

You can usually spot the Tiger Marching Band outside during 8th hour practicing for their shows. Or perhaps you’ve seen them march in the Labor Day or Homecoming parade, but where they really shine is under the Friday night lights.

But have you ever wondered what went into creating a marching show and bringing it to the field? How do members remember their spots?

The Color guard is responsible for giving color to the band with their flag routines. Color guard starts in early May, when team members begin learning basic movements with their flags. These will eventually become routines to school spirit songs like “On Urbana” and the most-known popular song “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.

The full marching band starts in mid- to late July, when the band members start working on basic fundamentals of marching. Once the full band has learned these basic skills, they are ready to perform at events like the USD 116 Opening Day where staff is welcomed back to school with crowd favorites like Tom Wallace’s arrangement of “Hey Baby.”

But playing school songs isn’t all the band does. They create a show that showcases all of their marching fundamentals and all the movements the color guard team has learned as well.

When it comes to finding a show, marching band directors Stacey Peterik and Christina Fernsberg find the music and give the band choices to vote on. Once the team votes, music is passed out for members to start learning the music.

“It normally takes me between 1-3 weeks to memorize music depending on the difficulty level of the music we decide to play,” said senior piccolo player Megan Stumpf.

Music isn’t the only thing they must practice. Once music for the show is given to the members of the band, the members of the color guard start adding choreography to the show. It sounds simple, but adding choreography is never easy. Color guard starts learning the beginning of their marching show in the middle of June so they can be ready and prepared.

For junior and captain Danyla Nash, “The hardest part for me is memorizing the paths you have to take to string your dots together in a show.”

It may be difficult, but it’s worth it. The marching band’s priceless hours of work are not in vain. The 2023 TMB has already won an award at the September 16th Sage City invitational in Monticello IL, placing 3rd in their class.

But their work does not stop there. You can continue to catch the marching band at future home football games and other surrounding marching band competitions.

Be sure to check them out!