Aliso Niguel’s Marching Band and Color Guard kicked off their season strong, making their  long awaited return after Covid-19 kept them from competing last year. The teams excelled in their first two competitions, leaving victorious from both.

The first competition took place on Oct. 23 at Poway High School in San Diego. Aliso Niguel won first place for band and color guard. The Poway field competition served as a first glimpse of a traditional performance for many new members. Al Kuznetsov (10) shares how “half of us haven’t actually done any competitions because both sophomores and freshmen have never had a show.” 

In their second competition on Oct. 30, ANHS competed at Irvine High School, successfully winning first place again for marching band and auxiliary. 

Arturo Salazar (10) reflects on how the band was able to improve, noting how “this last competition we did five points better than the previous competition, which is a huge difference.”

Despite their lack of experience, the band is proud of their performance so far, improvement being a high achievement. Halima Ba (10) considers how “[in the first competition] I had a lot of mistakes, but the second time I fixed said mistakes and did infinitely better.”

Looking ahead, the band will face further challenges in their next performance, competing against six other bands in their division. Kuznetsov (10) summarizes how they are “really excited to see the show when we’ve perfected and cleaned it.”

Color guard too performed for the first time in two years, tackling lack of experience for members who have never done a performance before. Led by Brynn Titel (12), Bridget Canada (12) and Suravi Singamsetty (11), the guard was able to win both of their returning competitions for October.

 Although unfamiliar for some, their attitude as a group was as ecstatic as ever going into the meets. Singamsetty (11) shares “there were a few girls that cried because they missed the atmosphere of competitions. It felt very surreal to be able to compete again.”

The team looks forward to all of their fun traditions and the championship in which they will be able to display all of their hard work over the past four months.

Overall, Aliso’s band and color guard have marched into the season in full stride, raising the prospect for more wins in their future.