The First Performance of Ragnarok

As the school year is settling in, football season begins. Along with that comes the marching band season as well. Throughout the summer the Waukee Warrior Regiment has been practicing their show “Ragnarok”, a show based off of Norse mythology where in a series of events lead up to the end of the world.

On September 7 at the Waukee stadium, the Waukee Warrior Regiment put on their uniforms for the first time and played their first public performance of the year. In the student section it’s halftime and most students are talking to their friends and grabbing food, when all of a sudden the high school band is announced and they play their show. But what happens before a performance? A lot goes into a football game performance, and the first one of the year brings… WHAT? Jitters? Excitement? Students arrived two hours before kickoff to get dressed in their iconic purple and gold uniforms. Since the field next to the band room is under construction, the Waukee Warrior Regiment warms up behind the stadium on the field next to Waukee Middle School. Pregame for the marching band consists of playing the National anthem, school song, then making a tunnel and playing the school song for the football players to run through. After pregame the band then goes to the bleachers under the scoreboard of the field. Before the Friday night football game started. Drum Major Shreeya Kolli was asked how she felt “I’m sweating bullets, I’m extremely nervous it was bad. I know the band would do good, I’m just more scared on my part.”

When the second quarter hits the band then leaves to go back onto the field behind the bleachers to warm up for the halftime show. After warming up, the WWR walks back to the stadium and goes towards the end zones getting ready to move their equipment after the dance team performances. As soon as the band gets the go ahead, all the scaffolding props the guard stands on and equipment are quickly moved, each student moving with a purpose. While stuff is being moved, the crowd can hear the pre-show music playing. As the band settles in the Waukee Warrior Regiment is introduced along with drum majors Beverly Zheng, Shreeya Kolli, Jack Rand, and Ella Stobbe. Sophomore Gemma Bingham was asked how she felt during the performance: “My honest thoughts were don’t mess up, because this is your first time and you need to make this perfect, but then I realized that this is actually very fun and a super exciting experience and it’s okay if I end up messing up.”

After a performance all the equipment needs to be moved, which is a lot of equipment ranging from the scaffolding props to the electronics equipment and the front percussion. Every band student has been assigned a job to help before and after the show to make everything easier. After the show, exhausted students were asked how they felt about their first performance in the 2024 season. When junior and clarinet captain, Jessica Kratky was asked about how she felt after the performance she said, “I was really proud of our progress as a band, especially for our first football game. We had three movements on the field and we went without met. I just felt really good overall.” Senior and head drum major Beverly Zheng said, “I think we did awesome, I’m so happy with all the progress we’ve made so far.” When asked about how she feel about the start of the competition season Zheng replied with, “I’m feeling really good, we have a really good head start this year and that makes me excited.” Overall the band seemed to have a great performance and are looking forward to an even better competition season.