Almost halfway into the competitive marching season, the Coppell High School Band performs weekly at football games, participates in marching competitions on the weekends and practices every day during their class period in order to constantly improve themselves.

On Oct. 15, the band travelled to Plano East High School to compete in the annual Plano East Marching Invitational.

Coppell High School’s highly acclaimed marching band took second place, tying with the esteemed Marcus High School band in the music caption.

“When we tied with Marcus for music, we were definitely shocked but we were happy to see that the amount of time we invested paid off,” junior flute section member Chini Lahot said. “It also gave us encouragement to put more effort into our finals performance,”

Coppell came out on top in the Color Guard caption, surpassing many distinguished band programs.

“[The Plano East Invitational] gave [the judges] an opportunity to see [the show] now and offer their commentary, likes and dislikes, and their preferences, that way moving forward from there, it will help us develop our show,” band director Gerry Miller said.

The band chose to attend the Plano East Invitational because they will potentially compete against many of the bands present at the competition during the future area or state rounds. Tying Marcus High School, the reigning Class 6A state champion, is one of the band’s defining moments so far this season.

“Coppell has never been in the same competitive level as [Wakeland and Marcus] so for them to be compared to them and also surpass them at a competitive level was a pretty big shock and really good moment for the students to know that their hard work has been paying off,” color guard director Matthew Rummell said.

After winning the UIL marching sweepstakes award, Coppell is scheduled to compete for the UIL Area B 6A title back at Pennington Field on Oct. 29.

During the UIL Regional round on Tuesday night at Pennington Field, Coppell earned the sweepstakes award and ones from all three judges, advancing them to the area round.

“I thought we would be in the top three, I think watching all the shows and being familiar with what is going on, it was pretty right on,” Miller said.

Coppell will compete in the area round on Oct. 29 then, pending the result, will advance to the state finals on Nov. 13 in San Antonio.

“In the process, so much of it goes into what the parents do like making sure we have props that work, equipment loaded and feeding 400 people,” Miller said. “A lot of hours have been invested into it and we are hoping it will pay off as we get further and further down the line.”

Miller will look to add the finale to the production on Friday night in preparation for the area competition.

“For these kids that’s a tremendous accomplishment to do something along those lines,” Rummel said.

In preparation for area, the directors are now looking to clarify details, refine the show and successfully add the last minute of performance onto the show.

“We are making sure that it is as in sync as possible and that every kid is doing their job every single count of the show,” Rummel said.

For Rummel, the result of the Plano East Invitational caught him by surprise solely because of the high level of the competing programs.

“The kids were over the moon, they were really excited, getting to hear their name called out on the loudspeaker in front of thousands of people and being told that they won the guard caption, that was a really cool moment for them,” Rummell said. “The whole band actually cheered really loud for the color guard which was also a very unifying moment for them.”