For the first time ever in the history of Stoughton High School, our Viking Marching Band (VMB) hosted its very own marching invitational. This is an invitation for other marching bands to travel to SHS to perform, be judged, and win awards. In previous years, VMB only performed as an exhibition at these invitationals, and never hosted. But not only is VMB hosting for the first time ever, they also were new to being scored, thanks to the SHS Color Guard. Without them, the band could not earn points in all categories, much less compete or dream of winning. On Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, there was no parking to be found in the back parking lot of SHS or even in the neighborhood streets. The front lot was filled with school buses as they dropped the competing marching bands from Platteville, Sauk Prairie, Milton, and Middleton had traveled to compete on Stoughton’s very own Collins Field at the Anderson Complex. This event was open to the public and ticket sales supported future band endeavors.
SHS Viking Marching Band showed up at 1 p.m. to prepare for their own performance. VMB was ready to pull out the stops to entertain the crowd, knowing they were up against much larger bands, such as Milton, with over double the performers. The stands were packed with fans from all of the different schools, even the visitor section, which, despite its poor view because of the bleachers facing the back of the performance, held overflow fans and other competitors. After practicing every Monday and Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. for the past three months, Stoughton’s marching band knew they were ready.
Drum major Alex Theissen had confidence in the VMB, and talked about how important this was for the SHS band saying, “It’s a really cool opportunity for the community to come and look at what we actually do. Not everyone goes to football games, and that’s really the only local place we perform at, so I think it’s cool to get the word out more about this cool thing we do.”
After watching all the bands perform, SHS finally took the field. Silence filled the packed bleachers as the announcements faded away and Theissen stepped up on the podium. The first movement started out slow, with the drums rumbling across the field. Band director Dan Schmidt was so excited to see this movement, partially because he had talked about how “That movement has so much energy and has so much drive. And I mean just beyond all of that, the ability of that movement will have on the crowd will be amazing”. He was exactly right, the SHS band blew it out of the park, opening with Destruction of Hometree from Avatar, and the crowd reacted.
The color guard, a new and welcome addition, danced across the field with their fluid, graceful movements contrasting the band’s sharp changes. Dressed in their royal blue outfits to match the rippling water theme, they truly sold their part of the performance. Katie Mcann, a senior in SHS currently experiencing her first year in the color guard explained, “The guard takes the overall story that the music creates and puts it into a physical form representing what the movement is about. … it expands the opportunities to participate and should definitely stick around.” Katie’s explanation played out on the field, and the marching truly became an entertaining show, even with some veteran bands bringing in elaborate props to tell their stories.
As hosts, VMB couldn’t place and had the privilege of handing out trophies in their first-ever awards show. The neutral judge wore UW-Madison Badger Band apparel as he worked throughout the day and reported his conclusions to the overall scorers. Bands were divided into competing classes based on school size. Sauk Prarie’s marching band won best visuals, best color guard and had the overall highest score. Middleton’s marching band came in second and won the titles of best music and best percussion. Mr. Schmidt handed off trophies to his drum major and color guard captain to present to the other marching band leaders over the roar of applause. The invitational was a rousing success, raising money for the SHS band program, and representing Stoughton High School well. It is sure to be only the beginning of an annual tradition.