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Members of the Marching Arrows drumline perform during the field competition at the Tri-State Band Festival in Luverne on Saturday, Sept. 27. The Arrows will perform next at the Festival of Bands in Sioux Falls on Saturday, Oct. 4. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
Pipestone Area Schools (PAS) senior Sefora Gamboa Herrera earned the Outstanding Drum Major Award at the Tri-State Band Festival in Luverne on Saturday, Sept. 27.
Gamboa Herrera is the lone senior on the Pipestone Area Marching Arrows this year and the band’s only drum major. Band Director Dr. Zachary Ploeger said it had been a long time since a PAS drum major won the award and that the award isn’t usually given to someone who is the only drum major in their band.
“Usually, if there’s two or three of them, a big part of what they look for is the interplay between how they can stay together as a group,” Ploeger said. “She has to be so extraordinary in her own abilities that they’d give it to a single drum major, so that’s impressive, to me anyway.”
The Marching Arrows started their busy Saturday with the Tri-State Band Festival parade in the morning where they finished third out of three bands in class AA, behind West Central High School and Sioux Falls Christian High School. The band then performed in the Tri-State Band Festival field competition in the afternoon where they took third out of three in Class AA, behind West Central High School and Lennox High School. The band then went to Brandon in the evening for the Big Sioux Review where they finished fourth among six bands in Class A behind Harrisburg, Lennox and Madison, and ahead of Sioux City East and Luverne.
The Tri-State Band Festival parade was the band’s second parade competition of the year and Ploeger said the band added some stepping and drill movements the previous week in an effort to boost general effect scores. Band members said after their field show performance in Luverne that they felt like the band did well with the parade show with its newly added features, but that there was room for improvement.
Sefora Gamboa Herrera earned outstanding drum major at the
Tri-State Band Festival in Luverne on Saturday, Sept. 27. She is the only drum major and the only senior in the Pipestone Area Marching Arrows this year.
Photo by Kyle Kuphal
Sergio Villagrana plays the trumpet during the Pipestone Area Marching Arrows field show, titled “Mirror, Mirrior,” Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Tri-State Band Festival. The band will perform next at the Festival of Bands in Sioux Falls
on Saturday, Oct. 4.
Photo by Kyle Kuphal
“Unfortunately, the first play of it was in front of the judges and the second play of it was just for people, and I feel like we did better on the second play through it when we weren’t being judged,” said Brady Dunn, a member of the drumline.
Band members also felt good about their field show performance in Luverne. Gamboa Herrera said right after the field show that she expected to see the band learn from its mistakes and show improvement later in the day in Brandon. Ploeger said Monday was, in fact, what happened.
Looking at the 2025 marching season as a whole so far, band members said they thought the band has been performing better than it had in recent years. The band includes many young members this year, including students as young as seventh grade, and Gamboa Herrera said she was really proud of them.
“They stand their own ground, so I appreciate that,” she said.
The band will compete next at the Festival of Bands in Sioux Falls. The day starts with the parade competition downtown on Phillips Avenue from12th Street to Sixth Street. The Marching Arrows will perform their parade show, titled “Toxic,” at 10:10 a.m. and will compete against three other bands in Class AA. The preliminary field competition begins at 11:30 a.m. at Howard Wood Field at 1200 N Western Ave. in Sioux Falls. The Arrows will take the field at 1 p.m. with their show, titled” Mirror, Mirror,” and will compete against four other bands in Class AA.