The sweat drips down their face as they practice their marching formations out under the hot sun. The sound of various instruments blends together in the air, each student focused in on their part.

The James Bowie Outdoor Performing Ensemble is headed for Grand Nationals this coming November. Held in Indianapolis every year and hosted by the Bands of America, Grand Nationals is the national competition for bands across the United States.

“There are high schools from all over the country competing,” senior band president Amy Cox said. “It’s one of the most competitive competitions for band, and it’s a really big deal to be able to go since it’s so far away from Texas. Currently, nobody in band has ever gone, but the Bowie band has gone three times and we’ve placed in the top 12 every time. Last time we made sixth, so we are hoping to place even higher this time.”

The competition lasts about five days, and each round of the competition gets more and more competitive.

“The preliminaries are first,” freshman Sara Brown said. “Everyone who wants to compete performs their shows and the judges pick around twenty bands to move forward to semi-finals. During semi-finals, the bands play again and are narrowed down to twelve. You perform again during finals, and get told the place you ranked, from first to twelfth.”

To move on in the competition, the students must perform with excellent technique.

“The show has to be clean and executed well,” Cox said. “You have to do well visually as well as musically. The entire marching band has to work together. We have the color guard, the front ensemble, the rest of the band, as well as people pushing these thrones that we have that the color guard stands on. It’s the effort of everybody that comes together in this one performance.”

All the effort required to compete is part of the experience the students go through.

“We get to see bands from all over the country to compete and put ourselves up against those groups,” head director Ryan Thomas said. “The goal isn’t necessarily to win, but for them to have a really great educational experience. They get to perform their best and represent their community the best they can on a national stage.”

The band students are excited to perform in Grand Nationals.

“I’m super excited to show everyone what we can do,” Cox said. “I think we have a chance to really wow people with the show this year. It’s a really strong show and very powerful, and I think it’s just a brilliant idea.”

Senior drum major Gianna Nuckols echoes Cox’s excitement.

“The feeling you get after a performance is unexplainable,” Nuckols said. “You know that you worked all those hours for that performance, for that eight minute show. It’s just the feeling you get, that you worked with such a big team, you just can’t explain it. You work so long and hard just for that one eight-minute performance and then what you get afterwards is just so much excitement that you did that, and I’m really looking forward to that. It’s going to be a very difficult competition and we are going to compete against a lot of really great bands.”

The students work hard in order to perform their best, spending hours practicing even during the summer.

“Starting August first, the whole band starts band camp,” Nuckols said. “Drum line starts a week before, and guard starts two weeks before. We do practices Monday through Friday. In the morning we do six to twelve at Burger Stadium, then come to Bowie for a two to four block, then we go back to Burger for a six to nine block. We do that everyday for two weeks, and a week before school starts we switch to just night blocks.”

After school starts, band continues their night practices every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

“We start out every practice with a stretch block and sometimes that includes a work out,” Nuckols said. “To keep up our endurance, we run. We have to have strength in our core, and then we stretch because it’s a very physical- it’s a sport, I consider it a sport. Then we do a basics block where we do marching and work on techniques of what we might put on the field later. We learn the drill for the rest of the practice, which is our show.”

Band students commit a lot of their time to practicing.

“We have the eight hours of week that we practice with the band,” Cox said. “ Then we have to practice on our own time, probably one to two hours a week. There’s also band class that we take, so I’d say probably ten to twelve hours a week total, but it’s worth it, because band is definitely amazing.”

Band students must also maintain a passing grade in all of their classes, per UIL rules.

“It’s tricky to balance,” Nuckols said. “This year we started a tutoring list so people who are having trouble with their grades can find a tutor to help them in that subject within the band.”

There is a lot of work that goes into band, and Thomas credits the students and the entire community for helping out.

“One of our strengths is our leadership,” Thomas said. “Our student leadership is really strong, they get a lot of the work done. We only have four directors and 250 kids in marching band, so we really depend on student leadership to help us out. The classes are working really hard. I’d also say that the parent support, and even school faculty support, like the whole community has been really amazing.”