Moritz Life

Band Boosters are parents of band members who help out with the many, many jobs it takes to get a band to and from an event, feed them and keep them out of trouble. I've helped out with Andrew's band the last 3 weekends. The first was feeding them pizza before they played at our football game, the 2nd was a 2 hour stint selling food at the Hanford Band Review and the 3rd and by far the most taxing was chaperoning a field trip. We had two buses, two trucks pulling trailers, one of them with a "Gator" on board. The kids met at the school at 7:30 am for a brief practice and then the loading of the equipment. The buses were ready to roll by about 9:05 am and we headed off to Fresno State for the Sierra Cup Classic - a competition of 37 bands from around California. We arrived at 10:15 or so and the kids got ready and went to practice. They were supposed to eat their lunches on the bus. They had a snack around 12:15 and then got into full gear and went to the practice field to warm up. This is where we put their plumes in their hats (shakos). They warmed up and when it was time to head to the stadium they marched over. We took off to try and get into the stands before they actually performed. Once up in the stands we got to see another school perform just before Hanford High. The performance was great and in their class "AA" there were 5 other bands competing (Class depends on how many students are in the band). We left after their performance, back to the buses to get them some water a (it was a very warm 80 degrees). They performed about 1:30 pm. By 3:00 pm we had loaded everything back up and the kids got back on the bus - where we took them to John's Incredible Pizza for 3 hours of food and fun. http://www.johnspizza.com/home. Then it was back on the buses to go back to the stadium and watch the rest of the performance. We got back just before 7:00 pm and there were about 9 bands left. Once they had finished performing, Fresno State's Marching band and colorguard performed for us - what a fabulous show. They even have a baton twirler. She twirled two batons most of the time, once they were lit on fire - both ends! After that the awards were given out - Hanford High School won first place in their division and they won the award for Best Percussion - of which Andrew is a part! Congratulations HHS Band! Once the ceremonies were over, we headed back to the buses, again and it was off to Hanford. We unloaded got the kids off and it was time to go home and crawl into bed, just after midnight! Wow, am I tired, but it sure was fun.