Athletics at Fountain Hills High School are not the only student programs that have a competitive season in the school year.

The FHHS marching band recently entered into its competitive schedule during the week of homecoming, participating in their first showdown on Saturday, Sept. 29.

The band took second place at the Desert Ridge High School Marching Band Invitational. Their next competition is on Saturday, Oct. 20, in Flagstaff at the Skydome on the Northern Arizona University campus.

The first competition of the season also marked the end of a very busy week for the FHHS band.

“Especially because it was homecoming, the week was very hectic,” color guard leader Mikayla Anderson said. “There was the parade on Wednesday, we had Thursday night practice and then we had a Friday night performance for the football game.”

While all of the rehearsal and performance time leading up to the competition was helpful, there is no way to simulate the exact competition setting.

“Performing at the game is one thing,” Band instructor Lynn Truby said. “There, it is just the home crowd and they’re just looking at the show as a whole; what the overall, whole effect is. But at competition you have people literally looking at every single student’s feet to see if they are exactly the same. If they do a move, did they do it in the exact same way?”

Rehearsing for competitions can become a grueling process, Truby explained. Opinions can vary greatly from judge to judge so FHHS tries to just implement what they like in their routines.

“It is always subjective,” Truby said. “There have been things that one judge mentions that another judge liked. It is kind of a moving target. So we just take all the information in and we decide as a band what we think we should change and what we think we should leave because we like it. So we rock the line a little.”

For the marching band members the experience of learning a new routine each year is a strong bonding time and very rewarding.

“It is fun to see the freshman come in knowing literally nothing and know you can’t tell them apart,” Deven Meyers said. “It is a big commitment, but you make so many friends.”

The routine seems like a lot for everyone to take in when it is first introduced, and not just for the freshmen.

“It is really satisfying to learn,” Brent Ralph said. “At first, when you see the routine, it can be overwhelming. Like, ‘I have to memorize all this stuff?’ But once you get it down it becomes muscle memory.”

This year’s marching routine was themed as “A Night at the Movies.” The opener is the “20th Century Fox,” followed by pieces from “Avatar,” “The Greatest Showman” and “Skyfall.”

Getting the chance to play more modern music was exciting for the local band.

“It is definitely fun because we can relate to the music and we all know it,” Casey Timms said. “We know how to play it and it really gives it some extra emotion.”

The Falcons are hoping to make it to state and beyond this competition season, but they won’t have much time to relax after the seasons wraps. Parade season is just around the corner.