"Go! Fusion! FVRR 2007!" by Michelle Doan
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This is just a self article and a FVRR lyre I wrote on my own for the FVHS Royal Regiment marching band. I also made a slideshow if you wish to watch. Enjoy =] (By the way, can you guys, if you want, edit and proofread this for me and email to michelledoan93@hotmail.com ? Thank you very much.)
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It’s been the 35th year for Fountain Valley’s Royal Regiment Marching Band and once again set off on a great start. “Efficiency,” assistant director Mark Irons stated, was the organization’s main goal to look up to this year. And from director Gary Wampler, last year’s Teacher of the Year, along with the rest of the staff, this has been considered one of the best years so far for FVRR. The first competition took place at Riverside Community College (RCC), where the marching band managed to achieve second place of their 4A division and Best Percussion with their opener and ballad. The performance was quite “under-hyped” and had not met up to its full potential, but despite the marchers’ nervousness in their first competition of the year, and hesitation towards the rubber-like Astroturf field, the band kept working hard with sweat and energy, on their marching techniques, extra visuals, and improvements onto the opener, ballad, and closer of the show music. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect.” And soon their tiring, yet gradually improving rehearsals paid off even more by taking it onto the field. Not only though does the marching band take their potential greatness on the field, their other goal, encourage on by their enthusiastic music composer and the pit instructor, Ian Grom, was leaving that greatness on the field as well. To keep up with their theme and show music “Fusion,” new improvements have been made to the marching band’s uniforms. Parent volunteers, especially parent Eileen Cox of sophomore flutist Brodi Cox, helped and worked frustratingly to sew and pin a new neon flap onto the uniforms to represent the “fusion” of the “blue” and “yellow” in the show music, also matching the color change of the neon green on the colorguard’s flags and uniform. While marching the show, the marcher’s secretly flip the flaps off and on during the show at certain points when facing backfield, creating a “magic effect.” This makes the crowd go nuts along with the break-dance visuals in the battery (drumline) feature within the opener show music where all the winds halt—or as Mr. Irons likes call the section to the band, “shimmy-shimmy-cocopuff.” Mr. Irons, assisted by senior trumpeter Mitch Park managed with the band to create and practice the robotic dance routines through many processes and changes until they finally reached a fantastic conclusion that leads to the all the winds pointing straight at the judge’s box proudly at the end of the feature. At the next competition at the Newport Harbor Community College, the whole band was hyped and more confident, giving each other hugs and high fives for good luck before the performance. The Royal Regiment managed to achieve Best Percussion, High Winds, Best Visual (General Effects), and 1st place of the 4A division. The competition in Costa Mesa on the following Saturday, October 27, was cancelled, due to the unhealthy air quality from the southern California wildfires. But despite that, the band was encouraged on to work even harder for the better. “The fire and the air quality did set us back eight rehearsals, leading up to championships. Not all of our competitors are in Orange County; so they were practicing while we couldn’t. Plus, we lost one more performance at a major competition. The school that hosted it lost about 35 thousand dollars,” Mr. Wampler comments. Freshman colorguard Lauren Zike also comments, “The air quality has definitely done some pretty heavy damage on not only the colorguard, but the FVRR as a whole. Competitions and practices have been cancelled. Championships are in, like, 12 days. I can honestly say that there are definitely people who aren't ready for the shows, and I'm one of them. Without practice, I haven't been able to learn the ending work for the show. It's not always good to get out of practice. And not being able to spin period has definitely affected us in a bad way. But I have faith in the Regiment. I think we can get this show completely finished and looking as perfect as possible.” I have to admit though, as being one of the marchers out in the field on the rescheduled Varsity football home game on October 29, having no visual practice all week previously, we made a lot of mistakes, visual-wise at least. At the end of the break-dance routine in the opener, I completely blanked out at what I was supposed to do next and ended up pointing both my hands out the audience, instead of one out to the box. I stuck out so much. After the show, Kevin Ai, a freshman alternate clarinet watching the show, told me, “I saw a lot of mistakes, some of them not too major and some a bit more major. One of the major ones I spotted was at the end of the break dance routine where one person stuck out of the rest pointing two hands out instead of one. Another was that the cover-down lines were really crooked and not many people got to their spot. Some minor and technical mistakes I saw was that some of the colorguard showed some of their green flags too soon and a lot of the green sashes were showing. Other then those, I thought that the show was good.” When I heard Kevin mention the part about the break-dance routine, I got so embarrassed! But even though our marching season has been shortened because of the fire, we were determined to work harder to the Championships and Finals (November 17-18). And with our determination, we were able to perform our best improving full run-through by Wednesday of that next week. On Saturday, November 3rd, the day of the WBA competition, the marching band performed once again in RCC, this time, more confident than their first performance at the community college. The competition was to be the most important performance, more than the one in Madera. “Remember this competition,” Mr. Wampler tells the band. But the performance turned out a little less than usual. During the performance, without the authority or notion, a man lit a smoke on the field edge impudently. This caused an intoxicated atmosphere to a few of the marchers and colorguard with asthma and breathing problems. There were a few minor mistakes here and there, but to most of the marchers after the performance, it felt like a total mess. Everyone was feeling down and depressed, but Mr. Irons and Mr. Wampler gave them a long, meaning and encouraging speech that the points didn’t matter and whether we won or lost. And how despite the fact we made a mistake or had a tear-up in the show, everyone should drop the thought about it after, stand up and go on, performing even better to recover. Pretend that nothing had even happened. Mr. Irons recalls to the band that one of the judges came down to him after their performance telling him, “I have never seen a band that has ever wanted it as bad as yours.” I am an emotional person and I was pretty much down and depressed along with most of the band members, but when Mr. Irons gave us that speech and told us what the judge said, it just hit me and I knew there were a bit of tears in my eyes. But I wasn’t going to cry. “Just want until they gives the end of the seaon speech. Then you’ll be crying,” one of my bando friends tell me though on the way back to the semi. After hanging out and buying food in the back, the whole marching band and colorguard, sat with the other high school bands in the visitor’s side bleachers to watch the marvelous mind-blowing performances of the 5A division bands and RCC’s “Marching Tigers” Exhibition. Afterwards was the awards assembly where Fountain Valley’s Royal Regiment won Best Percussion, Best General Effects, and first place. I believe watching out of all the bands sitting around, there wasn’t a band who cheered so joyfully together as ours or at all. But the quote from the judge that “I have never seen a band that has ever wanted it as bad as yours” still hit me every time I cheered for our awards or thought about it. But it was more like a “you had to be there” moment to feel it. The next competition was the Madera WBA competition. This was the San Francisco trip everyone was waiting for. After the pre-game of the Varsity football game Friday night before the 3-day Veteran’s Day weekend, the band left before half-time on charter buses for their long bus ride to the Madera Valley Inn which lasted until 2 o’clock in the morning. But the marchers spent their bus-time in boredom well, playing Mario Kart DS, watching movies on the buses’ DVD players, and sleeping. On Saturday, after a night’s sleep at the inn, the marching band headed off to Hometown Buffet for brunch. After a satisfying, morning meal, they rode Bullard High School to rehearse their show once again, despite the mud and bits of trash. Again for an early dinner, the band filled their tummies to satisfaction at Hometown Buffet once again to get them pumped up for the competition that night. The WBA competition at Madera High School gave an unexpected, exciting result to the marching band though at the award assembly. The Fountain Valley Royal Regiment won sweepstakes (better than 1st place; overall) with a score of 90.25, all the caption awards for the 4A division, except one, and a free clarinet from Jupiter (no, not the planet, the music instrument company).This left the band in dropped jaws, jumping up and down and screaming with joy. Back at the inn, the band stayed up until around 1 in the morning, partying in each other’s rooms with sweets, treats and pizza from downstairs, watching movies, and playing Gamecube and Wii. Sunday was the trip to San Francisco. The ride was long lasting, but when the buses finally arrived at Pier 39, the band broke off into groups to hang out. Some went to explore Alcatraz, while others explored along the pier and Ghirardelli Square. Along the pier as well, some students went other attractions like Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum and the street performers. After exploring San Francisco, the band then headed to Chinatown’s Cathay House for dinner. Along with enjoying a nice meal of Chinese food with a couple of their friends, the marching band also enjoyed a entertaining round of karaoke. With all the fun, everyone began to pack their luggage for their leaving of the inn Monday morning and headed straight to bed. The next stop, on their way home, was Six Flag’s Magic Mountain theme park. The Royal Regiment had a grand time, enjoying the competition and the trip itself. The awards itself was much of a big-shocker and enjoyment, but the main thing was that the whole band had fun with it, having a great time, giving the energy to the crowds at the competitions. This year, FVRR has been rising up and improving dramatically better each and every competition. Mr. Wampler was even recalled saying the Madera performance was even better than last year’s Championship’s performance by a little bit, which is saying something and their front ensemble instructor Ian Grom encouraging them with, “I want blood in my cheerios!” At the last competitions of the marching season (November 17-18), the band earned 1st place in the 4A Championships along with 4A class caption awards of [...will edit this in after I find out (wasn't paying attetion to the caption awards)...] and WBA 4A Championship medals to the entire marching band. In the WBA Finals, the band won 4th place behind 5A bands of Mission Viejo, Upland, and Logan with a score of 91. Along with the awards, senior Kenneth (Kenny) Chow received a ($...) scholarship (from/for?). For the staff and the marching band as a whole, this marching season year for the FVRR has been once again a successful one and worked up to it’s goal of “efficiency.”
