By Jacob Chang

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After months of work and countless hours of practice and dedication, the MHS Marching Band put on their last performance of the season on Nov. 9 at John Kauinana Stadium. The band’s Joan of Arc themed performance was not scored and was played as an exhibition.

“The last performance is always the hardest because you work so hard over five months and it’s kind of an emotional time for a lot of people, especially the seniors,” said Band Director Derek Kaapana, “Going into the performance and also in the performance itself, I think everyone rose up to the expectations that I had and also the expectations that they had of themselves.”

Despite the poor weather conditions, the band put everything they had into their last performance. “Aside from the pouring rain, which actually made it more exciting and intense, I think it went really well,” said Senior Rachel Yonamine, who portrayed Joan of Arc. “It actually cleared up for our performance which was awesome and I think that was one performance where our heart was in it.”

Since the event was organized and run by MHS, the band decided not to compete to keep the competition as fair as possible. “The idea behind (not competing) is that we bring in the judges, we ask the people to judge and just in case there’s any kind of bias on their part,” said Kaapana.

With 35 out of 132 band members being seniors, this performance marked the end of their high school marching band careers. “It’s a bittersweet feeling. (This is) the program that fostered some of my greatest friendships, experiences, lessons, love. So it’s a good feeling to be accomplished, knowing that you’re a part of something bigger than yourself for so long but it’s sad at the same time knowing that it’s all over and this chapter of your life is closed,” said Yonamine.

Though marching season is now over, band members are looking forward to working with each other further as they prepare for concert band, winterline and winterguard.