The Fighting Flock of Falcon Fury, better known to most as the Fountain Hills High School marching band, recently capped off its season with a collection of major performances, as well as an “Excellent” rating at state and a stroll down the road as part of the Phoenix Veterans Day Parade.

It was a big year for the FHHS crew, with their 2016 marching program known as “Welcome to the Jungle.”

While that performance entertained local visitors to the home football games, the Falcons also took to the field with their spirited show at the recent U of A Band Day, NAU Band Day and state competition hosted out of Hamilton High School.

A pair of this year’s band members came together to talk about the season, including senior drum major Carla Naranjo and junior tuba player Sam Aker.

The first major competition of the season took place at the University of Arizona for U of A Band Day.

“It was very fun and a real wild card in terms of scheduling,” Naranjo said. “It was the Saturday right after homecoming, so I think it really tested the band’s ability to be resilient in any situation.”

Naranjo said she felt the Falcons held their own at the competition and, despite the loaded schedule, they went on to perform a great show.

This was actually only the beginning of the end-of-season journey for the band, with the next two weekends also dedicated to competitions.

Next up came NAU Band Day, giving the Falcons the always enjoyable experience of playing their show in the Flagstaff Skydome.

Aker said the Falcons always have a good time when they take the field at NAU.

“The sound in the dome is really fun to experience,” he continued. “It’s louder, but it’s also pretty challenging. We still played very well and got our Excellent rating, which was needed in order to go on to state.”

With all of that marching and playing behind them, the Falcons had to keep going strong for another week, hitting the road to Hamilton High School to compete against some high-caliber competition at state.

While Fountain Hills High School is considered a smaller campus, its marching band is on par with what is typically seen in a 4A or 5A program. Since these types of competitions are based on band size rather than school size, the Falcons once again went toe-to-toe with programs two divisions higher than their school size or, as Aker put it, programs from schools with at least 1,800 students. And, once again, the Falcon flock did not disappoint.

“I like to think of state as all of these bands coming together to showcase their show,” Naranjo said. “For us, as a band, it becomes less about what our score is and more about just putting on the best final show that we possibly can.”

A great attitude to have but, as Aker pointed out, the Falcons still brought home some hardware to be proud of. In the end, the Falcons earned a Caption award for the show’s visuals, as well as another rating of Excellent.

“Again, the bands we compete against are from bigger schools than ours and they usually have an extra 20 kids on the field,” Aker continued. “Despite that, we won the Visual Caption, which was very surprising. The band worked very hard to achieve that.”

Looking back, both Naranjo and Aker said they will remember “Welcome to the Jungle” fondly.

“I really liked this year’s show,” Aker said. “It was a lot of fun and we really rocked out. There were a lot of styles, which kept the show interesting.”

Next year, Aker said he’s looking forward to the Falcons putting together another great show that will entertain the crowd.

As for Naranjo, she’ll be flying off into the sunset following graduation.

“What I’m taking away from this show is that, at the end of the day, on paper, a show is just a show,” she said. “What makes it really come alive is all of the band members coming together, deciding that it is something special and then executing it.

“I’m really going to miss that about this marching band. What we bring to the table is unique.”

Photos courtesy of the FHHS Band Boosters.