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The Pipestone Area Marching Arrows perform this year’s field show “Mirror, Mirror,” Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Rosemount Marching Band Festival. The band will compete next at the Waseca Marching Classic on Saturday, Sept. 20. Contributed photo
The Pipestone Area Marching Arrows finished in last place out of eight bands in Class A at the Rosemount Marching Band Festival on Saturday, Sept. 13.
“We knew going in that it was going to be tough” said Band Director Dr. Zachary Ploeger.
He said the challenge is that the Rosemount Marching Band Festival features some of the best bands the Arrows will compete against all season. He said the band decided to compete at Rosemount despite the tough competition because there isn’t another field competition that weekend.
Despite the tough start to the competition season, Ploeger said he thought the Marching Arrows did well.
“I thought the band did really well, personally,” he said. “I thought they came out of the gate stronger than in previous seasons.”
Ploeger said the band did well in marching execution, which is typical for the Arrows. He said the judges also had positive things to say about the general effect concept of the Arrows’ field show, which is something the band has been working on. The biggest area to work on, Ploeger said, is getting an equal contribution from every band member.
“Those big bands, you can have some people who aren’t playing and aren’t marching very well and you can hide that stuff,” Ploeger said. “In a small band, you need every single person out there doing it. You can’t hide that.”
He said getting middle school kids to perform at the same level as a high school student is a challenge, and that the Arrows were the only band at the Rosemount Marching Band Festival that had middle school students. The other bands were from large metro area school districts such as Hastings, Andover, Anoka and Blaine.
That won’t be the case at the Waseca Marching Classic on Saturday, Sept. 20.
“There are bands there that are more similar to us, and you can’t call your own shots, but we should be much more competitive against them when it’s more of a fair fight,” Ploeger said.
In Waseca, the Arrows will be one of three bands in Class AA, along with the Luverne Cardinals Marching Band and the Stewartville Marching Tigers, in the parade competition, which is the first of the season for the Arrows. The parade begins at noon in downtown Waseca and the Arrows will be the second band to step off.
In the field competition, the Arrows will be one of five bands in Class A, along with the NRHEG Panther Marching Band, Park Center Marching Pirates, Luverne Cardinals Marching Band and Rochester Lourdes Marching Band. The Arrows are scheduled to take the field at Waseca High School at 5:58 p.m.