San Antonio, Here We Come!

The OCHS band takes a trip to the Alamo Bowl

Article by Hannah Mondragon

Over winter break, the Osage City High School band took a trip to San Antonio, Texas. The students performed in the Alamo Bowl, played pep band, and got to explore a new environment in Texas.

The bus ride to San Antonio was about 12 hours, and it wasn’t much of a teenage party. Junior Brooklynn Milam was asked about the ride and said, “On the bus we watched movies, listened to music, and slept. Nothing really too special.”

When the students reached Texas, they joined approximately 1,200 other students there from 14 schools all over the country. The practices were four to six hours long with very few breaks. It was drizzling during rehearsal on the day before the performance, so the students went into a gym, practiced in a group, and then broke up into sectionals. Then on game day at the Alamo Bowl, the OCHS Marching Indians and their peers from around the country performed “Bruno Mars Medley.” But this wasn’t the only thing the students did in Texas.

During the trip, the students went to visit Natural Bridge Caverns and SeaWorld. They were also able to go to the mall and have a relaxing time, as well as see other sites around San Antonio. Some members, such as senior Samantha Smith, even made new friends on the trip.  “The [trip] was still good overall and even though I didn’t know anyone there, I met some new friends and I still talk to them regularly,” said Smith.

The band was able to pick five pep band songs to perform on the Riverwalk the day before the game. They chose Samba (during which they shouted, “Go, Wildcats!” instead of the usual, “Go, Indians!”), Hey Baby, Sail, and Shout it Out. Milam was asked about the OCHS band compared to the other bands and she said, “The other pep bands just played cadences and played their marching band music. On the other hand, the OCHS pep band did horn moves and we were a really peppy group. People were looking at us like we were from a different planet, but we had fun and that’s all that matters.”

The students were exhausted when they returned home, but they talked about the trip for weeks. The OCHS band got a wonderful opportunity to participate in the Alamo Bowl after all those long pep band performances to support OCHS throughout the year.