The West Central Valley Marching Band tuned up for the upcoming show season with a band camp this week.

The band is preparing for a Pirates of the Caribbean themed show that they will perform at every home football game. It’s been long days of practice for the students, and the momentum won’t stop come school time, as they practice at 7 a.m. every school day morning on the football field, despite cold temperatures, rain, or snow. Drum Major and junior Rylie Hutton says the band is especially tenacious this year, “We’re hoping to do a couple competitions this year. We always do one competition in October in Waukee, but this year we’re hoping to do a couple more. And that’s why we’re getting such an early start on like getting drill and practicing music and stuff like that, because we want to do more than just one competition. We want to go compete for a title.”

Hutton and fellow Drum Major sophomore Promise Garcia add, they expect this year’s show to be more difficult than last year’s, but that they already see improvement upon the band and the incoming freshman class are getting acclimated as well. The marching band also held a percussion camp earlier this month and hosted the Mandarins Drum Corps from Sacramento who rehearsed at the high school this July.