By: Ariana Moreno & Jen’na Brown
Owl Feed Journalists
On May 4th, Agua Fria´s Band of Owls attended a band banquet organized by our parent volunteers as well as the band´s staff and our director Jeremy Garcia.
It was definitely a night to remember. It was a wrap up of last seasons marching band show as well as an introduction to next year´s marching band show! The band got a chance to listen to the audio of the next years marching band show, and we also were shown a slideshow of the past marching band season, created by student Ariana Plasencio´19. The room was filled with laughter and tears and memories we all will cherish. But, the most memorable part of the night was the representation of the awards.
One student from each section (saxophone, trumpet, etc.) received an award presented to them by their section leaders. Before each student received their award, the section leader presenting the award talked a little about why the student deserved the award and what they contributed to the 2017 marching band season. It was a very emotional night as pride and sincerity shone into the eyes of every section leader as they handed out the awards.
Aside from the section leader awards, there were also four top awards that were presented by Mr. Garcia. These four students were handpicked by Mr. Garcia himself.
The Directors Choice Award, presented to Josue Castillo ´18.
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Award, presented to Nathan Kramer ´18.
Patrick S. Gilmore Award, Joshua Reading ´18.
However, The John Phillips Sousa Award was the most prestigious award of them all. Mr. Garcia stated that the student receiving the award ¨had dedicated and committed themselves the most both timely and musically.” This award was presented to Ronaldo Santana ‘18.
¨To earn such a unique award was very emotional to me because it was difficult being a drum major, and also because of how the band program has been through a lot my entire high school career,¨ Santana said.
The music program will only continue grow as the years go on and we say goodbye to our talented seniors and embrace the underclassmen as they will one day they will hopefully be receiving awards such as these.
These talented senior Owls will carry these awards with them for the rest of their careers and will continue on to do great things.