The stadium went silent as the results of the UIL Area marching contest were released Saturday, but when the Redhawks marching band was announced as one of the finalists, the band was anything but silent.

“We are so stinking proud of every single band member making it to Area Finals,” assistant director of bands Cecily Yoakam said. “It has been a long road to get here, but the students’ hard work and dedication have really paid off to get them here. It has been extremely challenging, but the students have done the hard work to make it happen and I just hope with all my heart they all are as proud as the band staff are.”

Queen Bee placed seventh out of 18 bands at Area, and was again ranked seventh at finals out of the ten competing bands.

“I feel really good that all the work the band has put in paid off and it accumulated to us finally making area finals,” freshman Krishna Perneti said. “I was super happy to hear we made it because even though I’m a freshman I understood how much this really meant to the upperclassmen.”

Saturday was the first time the band had made Area Finals since Dystopia in 2017.

“It was really exhilarating to see the people around me so happy that all the hard work we did this season paid off and we got better from previous years,” freshman Janis Jaison said. “As well as we got the opportunity to perform Queen Bee one more time.”

The band has been preparing for the UIL competition since July, so getting to achieve their months long goal is exciting for Yoakam.

“My first thought was of instant pride when I heard,” Yoakam said. “There really are no words to describe how happy I am for the band and how truly stinking proud I am of them. They put in so much time, effort, energy, and patience into the year, and so badly deserved the opportunity to shine and show off, and be an Area finalist. I am just so happy for them to have experienced the feeling of accomplishing their goals. You all rock and we are so proud of you.”

The results were only a brief celebration for Jaison as she immediately began to look towards next year’s show.

“My first thoughts were that I am really proud of us as a band but I started getting curious for what’s next,” Jaison said. “It was a huge relief to hear that we made it and I can’t wait to see what happens next. I feel like the next show will be really interesting and more people will put effort into it and this sets the bar even higher cause we know that we are a band that can make it.”

Yoakam hopes this accomplishment will push the band to work harder in both their future marching and concert seasons.

“I am hopeful this will act as a springboard moving into concert band season, and into next year,” Yoakam said. “The band has proven they can do extraordinary and hard things so well. I hope this will carry momentum moving forward and students will go even further to push and excel at levels we never have before in the Liberty Band.”