After a chilly Friday night rehearsal, the marching band closed its competition season in the University Interscholastic League round at Little Elm Stadium at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Redhawks advanced to the finals by scoring in the top ten during preliminary performance, but missed a spot in the state marching band competition by three positions, placing 7th overall.

“I was just incredibly impressed by the amount of things that were improved from prelims to finals,” band director Zack Anderson said. “Since I got to see it holistically from the beginning to now, it was definitely the best, most solid, [and] most confident show we had to date. There were moments that I got chills because there were just some incredible visual and musical moments that had never happened before, so it was nice to get to sit back and enjoy the show and enjoy the performance and the work that everybody had put into it.”

Even though it fell short of its goal to make state, band members such as Arihant Bohara think the work was worth it.

“We can be proud of the work we accomplished,” Bohara said. “Although it would’ve been amazing to go to state, it’s been a great season.

The competition season came to a close earlier than most band members would have liked, but Anderson says there are some significant takeaways from the season.

“Growth is difficult to measure in the performing arts, obviously. The performance aspect gets better and better each show, but it’s the behind the scenes part that a lot of people don’t see,” Anderson said. “The friendships that have been made from the beginning to now are so much stronger. The bonds and the morale and the culture of and is so much stronger and not just the performance aspect of it.”