While the San Benito High School Band Boosters Club was busy
Saturday running one of the biggest events in the history of the
campus, the SBHS Winter Guard tied for first place at the Northern
California Band Association Winter Guard Championship.
While the San Benito High School Band Boosters Club was busy Saturday running one of the biggest events in the history of the campus, the SBHS Winter Guard tied for first place at the Northern California Band Association Winter Guard Championship.
“I was surprised. Last year, the competition we were going up against was not that hard. This year, they were all gunning for us,” said Westley Adams, an instructor with the winter guard team.
SBHS, which won top honors in last year’s competition, tied with Concord High School.
It was the first year that SBHS has hosted the event and the largest number of schools – more than 100 – to compete in the NCBA Winter Circuit Championships, said James Zuniga, music director and conductor at SBHS. Eleven teams competed in the team’s amateur category.
What’s more of a surprise is that most of the winter guard team’s 13 students are in their first year of participation. Two are in their second year and two others have four years of experience, said Camille Zuniga, director of guard at SBHS.
The team’s success was also unexpected because of the new staff working with the students. Adams, Erika Aguilar and Diana Zuniga are all in their first few years with SBHS and the winter guard team.
“We have such a new, young group. It’s great,” Camille Zuniga said.
The team went to San Jose Sunday to compete in the California Color Guard Circuit Championships and took second place out of 11 teams in its category. Last year, SBHS came in seventh.
“They worked like crazy people this entire week,” Camille Zuniga said. “They were really driven. I think they had a point to prove.”
The NCBA Winter Circuit Championships competition held two championships – percussion and winter guard. Percussion involves drumming while winter guard adds the elements of dance and equipment to a musical performance. Equipment can include a tall flag, rifle and saber, James Zuniga said. Middle schools and high schools from northern California and parts of Nevada competed for 55 trophies.
There are four categories for schools – novice, amateur, scholastic and open. The percussion is in the novice category and winter guard is under amateur. It was the last competition of the year for the drum line.
SBHS has 12 students in the percussion section, which placed 10th out of 16 in its category, Camille Zuniga said.
“They’re still working out a lot of their bugs,” she said. “It was a fun show to do and a fun show to watch.”
It was the percussion line’s first year with professional instructors as opposed to having students organize everything, Adams said.
