As the new school year approaches and we feel the chill of autumn, football season is not far behind. But while everyone is watching the players, another group steals the show: the marching band. A member of the marching band who stands out particularly is junior trumpet player Sophia St. Clair.
St. Clair started her marching band journey in her freshman year, as she was inspired by the band teacher, William Shoemaker, whom she had met in middle school.
“The reason that I joined was that when I started in my freshman year, I wanted to get involved in a social club. Before school started, I had known Mr. Shoemaker from when he had come to our middle school and talked about the marching band, so I thought it would be really fun to join,” St. Clair said.
Shoemaker shares the same sentiment about St. Clair due to her exceptional leadership skills and her ability to always help others.
“Sophie is an outstanding leader and works hard to help her fellow students be the best performers that they can be,” Shoemaker said.
To her, marching band is about teamwork; Everyone is important. And her leadership is also an opportunity to connect with people from other school marching bands.
“In the summer, we have band camp, and in band camp, there are people who have never done marching band before, so we teach them mostly everything about marching band. They needed help learning music and learning from scratch how to march. They are taught in big groups, but we would work in small groups and teach kids individually and throughout the whole marching season, we will correct mistakes and point out how they can improve. Also, the leadership gets to meet other band leaders, which connects us with other bands. It gave me more experience being a part of something, like marching band, every individual is important in making the show work. missing one person can mess up the whole thing making you feel important,” St. Clair said.
Because she has been in the band for quite a long time, you might think things would become repetitive. But she thinks that there will always be new things to learn.
“I feel like with the trumpet, the most fascinating thing is that you can always learn more. I feel like no matter how high I get, there is always something I can do better, something I can work on, and it never gets boring,” St. Clair said.
Going into her junior year, she needed to manage her time well, and she had tips to help with it.
“To me, marching band is kind of a big commitment; it’s like after school four days a week, so you do have to manage your time. For me, I’m in some AP classes and I have to do my homework either at like 7:45 when I get home or over the weekend before school, so tips that help with managing time are: not procrastinating, and getting your stuff done,” St. Clair said.
Not only is St. Clair proficient in marching band this is not the only thing she’s involved in. She tries to be an active member in the school and her community.
“I play the piano, and I love art. I’m in the national art honor society, and I do a lot of art outside of school. I love watercolors and sketching and I like to draw a lot on the weekends when I have time, but my schedule is pretty busy right now. But when I find inspiration or feel inspired, I will put it down. I had art class and did a bunch of pieces, some of which entered competitions, but it’s more of something that I do for fun when I can,” St. Clair said.
What marching band members are most involved in is being involved in the football game, and being able to show the spirit.
“My favorite part is the football games, because we can go to every football game, and we get to play the stand tunes, and it shows school spirit,” St. Clair said.
She is very enthusiastic about this year’s performance due to the increase in props and theme around pirates.
“Since I’m a junior and out of the three shows I’ve done, this one is my favorite, and I’m feeling really good about it. I think this is our best show yet. This year, we have more props than we normally do, like a pirate ship, and some people will have solos throughout the show. Also, our color guard is amazing. I know that at the beginning of the show, they move like the waves of the ocean and our music will have a pirate theme.,” St. Clair said.
The football season isn’t just about football; there is a whole network of other teams that contribute during the games. So it’s important to highlight the teams and the members in them for the performances they’ve given to us.
