On Oct. 15 the Davenport West High Marching Band took the field at the Iowa State Marching Band Contest. Since summer band started in early August, these Falcons reportedly have been doing nothing but hard work.

Early bird mornings started at 7:30 a.m. and lasted until the end of first block at 9:40 a.m. On top of their many hours, band directors Mark Kretschmer and Maggie Oates brought in a marching band expert, Ted Reicher.

Reicher helped coach the students to perform at their very best by using warm up exercises, marching fundamentals, and continuously rehearsing their musical sets. This year’s show featured musical hits from Star Wars. This show featured classics from the very first movies and even a selection from the most recent movie that came out in 2015.

Around 12:00 pm on Oct. 15 the West High students gathered together at West to practice one last time before traveling to Brady Street Stadium. At Brady Street, marching bands from all across Iowa showed up to perform their show.

At 3:20 p.m. the Falcon Marching Band performed their show in front of three judges, their band directors, and friends and family. They then marched off of the field and headed to take band pictures as well as section pictures.

Before everybody left, the WHS band was rewarded with a score of one. One is the highest score that a band can get in this competition. The marching band still has one more show to attend.

On Oct. 20 the Falcon band members will perform their Star Wars show one last time before hanging up their uniforms for the season. This performance will be at Brady Street Stadium for West High School’s last football game of the year.