Twelve bands went head to head at Dekalb High School. Among all these teams, Plainfield South was the team who took home the 1^st place trophy, for the first time in South’s history.

“it felt great because we’ve worked so hard for it and I hope we keep pushing off and keep working from here,” Devae said.

The students where astonished with the news that they had won first place.

“Winning first place was crazy because we believed in ourselves, but at the same time we didn’t think it would happen” said Sheridan Washington, a junior who plays the trumpet.

Although the band can now say they have a first place trophy under their belts, the band directors realize their hard work deserves the most credit.

“It’s exciting to win trophies, but they accomplish more than that and they get recognized when they go to an event,” said Jared Cook, lead band director.

Cook said [the students] work hard at every practice, and that itself is the actual accomplishment.

“We start technically preparing for marching band in about march with auditions for our leadership team, drumline, and color guard,” Cook said.

Band students have three practices before the school year is done, and they have the rest of the summer off.

Cook also took the time to explain what the first couple of weeks before school look like.

“We start back up two weeks before school starts with very long intense days. We do 8-hour days for those two weeks,” Cook said.

The marching band practices their music, along with everything from how to pull their horns, how and when to move their feet, and the pacing of all the movements,

But that’s not all the marching band does in preparation for this competition. They also take a 3-day trip down to Monticello, Illinois where Cook explains the days as being “even longer and more intense than those 8-hour days.”

“[Monticello] is like going on a camping trip, and it’s also a great bonding experience for the band,” said Sheridan Washington, a junior who plays the trumpet.

The drum majors play a very important role in the band.

“From a performance standpoint were usually sort of the conductors for the band,” said Anthony Devae, drum major. “It’s ninety percent leading and ten percent conducting because we also have to help the field get set up, help people know their music, things like that.”

“The role of the drum major in band is to keep time but that’s more so on the field,” said Matt Gray, another band major at South.

“Though off the field they’re more in charge of making sure everything runs smoothly, helping with any problems that can be helped with, and make sure everything’s okay,” Devae said.

“I remember starting back as a freshman and being scared. I remember thinking God do I want to do this, but I had section leaders help me and they made me feel more integrated in the band and they helped push me up to where I am today,” said Devae.

Ahead of this, the band has another competition on Oct. 12^th in Normal, Illinois at Normal Community High School. The band also plays at every one of South’s games and continue to practice for what’s next.

“Band practice is a lot of work and a lot of people don’t want to put in the work so its kind of derogatory in that sense, but we do put in the work and we put in the hours upon hours that it takes it order to do well.”