SRHS band goes to State Finals
By Ashley Shah
The Scripps Ranch High School (SRHS) marching band, the Falcon Corps and Color Guard, will compete in the California State Finals on Nov. 23 in Huntington Beach after placing fourth in the SoCal Division 4A finals in Orange County on Nov. 16, performing their show “The Raven.”
“The division finals consist of teams from both Northern and Southern California. They take the top six winners across divisions 4A, 5A and 6A, and then they will take the next top ten scores across the divisions. There are only 16 teams that can make it to the State Finals,” SRHS music director Russell Shedd said.
The divisions are based on how many students are in the team.
“We are in division 4A, which has teams that range from 70 to 100 students. We have 89 students on our team this year,” he said.
Prior to competing in the division finals, the band competed in three other tournaments.
“We just held our Falcon Invitational earlier this month. We did a great job with our invitational this year. … We had a ton of parent volunteers,” Shedd said.
The Falcon Invitational took place on Nov. 2. There were 11 marching bands, including the Falcon Corps.
“This was the first year in 20 years that we experienced rain during the invitational. We had a 20-minute rain delay for our show, and we did not have our usual electronics. We still ended up performing well, thankfully,” he said.
The invitational takes several months of planning. There were more than 50 parent volunteers helping with the event this year.
“We are so thankful to have a strong volunteering culture within the parents, and many donations to make this event possible,” he said.
The other two tournaments this season were successes as well for the team.
On Oct. 29, they competed in their first tournament in Escondido, and right before division finals, they competed in Temecula on Nov. 9.
“We won our division at the Escondido tournament,” Shedd said.
Last season, the Falcon Corps made it to the State Finals.
“We were in a smaller division last year, but we still ended up doing great. We placed second in our division, 3A. We placed fourth overall,” he said. “I am hoping to be able to make it again. We have a younger group this year, but they have worked really hard. Our show is more cohesive this season. We have more staff working with the marching band as well.”
Alongside the marching band, SRHS has a variety of other music programs.
“We have some programs that are primarily course-based, and others that are after-school activities,” Shedd said.
Orchestra (50 students), percussion ensemble (20 students), and concert band (55 students) are all courses at SRHS. The jazz band (15 students) is an after-school activity.
“What is nice about the different music programs at SRHS is that even though they have different class times and such, they all come together for concerts,” Shedd said.
The winter concert for SRHS will include all of the music programs, except for the marching band. The concert will take place on Dec. 11 and 12 at SRHS.
“The winter concert usually sells out. Our auditorium fits about 300 people, and we fill that up for the concert. It is a great event for our music program,” he said.