Back and better than ever,  MASH Marching Band marches onto the field every Friday under the lights. Bright red and black uniforms that are brand new with the best people to be marching in them this year especially with all the hard work put into the show. The band consists of many woodwinds and brass instruments. The band has many section leaders and staff that help a lot. The staff is Mrs. Kipp, Mr. Banks, Mr. Caprara, Miss Teudhope, Mr. Banes, Miss Thurau, and Mr. Walker. We have such a great staff and we all appreciate them so much. The band is lead onto the field by MASH senior Cody Hall and MASH junior Karissa Petruso. Our section leaders are Emily Barickman and Ella Stewart (flutes), Emma Landefeld (clarinets), Juan Vazquez (saxophone/mellophone), Clayton Litzinger, and Avi Maisner (low brass), Declan Girvan, and Jacob Graham (Drumline), and finally, there is Shane McClymonds and Ace Reese (pit).

At our school, MASH, our band director’s name is Armond Walter. Mr. Walter has always loved the sound of music since he was very little. Throughout his life, he has been exposed to music; with his family being musicians. Mr. Walter started playing instruments when he was in elementary school and it has always stuck with him. I personally asked Mr. Walter how long he has been teaching music and he said “I have been teaching for 11 years; this year.” That is a very long time. 

I have been doing marching band for 5 years now and being in the band has impacted me so much and has taught me to always have fun with school and learn to be friends with others and make a family. I play the piccolo in the band with my flutes. I am one of the section leaders and the other section leader is Emily Barickman.  Even though we make a family a lot of them do come and go because they grow up. We have a full 2 weeks to learn how to march, how to play and march, and then lastly learning our entire show to perform. The band has been growing since 2014. Mr. Walter agreed and said, “We started with about 35-40 members then we

grew to 85+ until the pandemic hit us and now we are holding at 64-70 members.” We will continue to grow and develop for further years to come.

To start off the new year 2021 we came out with our new and improved uniforms. The whole process took a whole year. Going from the texture and the style to the sparkle to the length and the sizes. Altogether the cost of the uniform was around $60,000 for everything the band purchased. I asked Mr. Walter to pick the amazing design and he said, “ I filled out a questionnaire on my vision for the band. Afterwards, they gave me a basic design and from there we critiqued and made many changes.” We as the band rock it.

To summarize it all, a lot of time and focus was put into such an amazing show. We play at the football games and have created our own band show called Green Day to enjoy with the bands all around the county. Our band plays a selection of songs of the band Green Day such as Bang Bang, Good Riddance, Holiday, and Still Breathing. We play the musical stand tunes and maybe once in a while, we do a little move. The band is very important at the football games like everyone else as well. We get the student section involved and even the cheerleaders. All and all we all share the fun and music to enjoy under the Friday night lights. We have our home band show which is on October 16th. Come out and support us!