Throughout McKinley High School’s 157 year history, the last time there was a marching band was in 1984 which participated in the Rainbow Invitational Marching Festivel in 1985 but was discontinued the year after. Since then, the school’s band program has been focused on concert band and has done halftime shows for football games.
“When I was in school we would perform at halftime and it would be like marching band, but it would be very short and sweet,” band director and McKinley alumnus Joseph Nakamoto said.
This year, Nakamoto brought the marching band back. Nakamoto’s main motivator for marching band was to grow the program. The band has participated in three out of six festivals. This year’s performances were inspired by McKinley’s homecoming theme, which revolved around movies.
“Starting out, the marching band was mainly for the kids who just want that opportunity,” Nakamoto said. “[It’s] also to get even people that are not a part of the McKinley community to know how the band is doing and what we’re all about as a school.”
At many of the marching band competitions, the students were able to meet other members from other schools. Nakamoto said concert band students don’t necessarily get to do that unless they go out of their way to make it to certain events.
“The marching band was a good opportunity for the kids,” Nakamoto said. “Not only just to get the experience and not only to make it the first marching band ever that’s in the school’s history, but also it does help a lot with the kids’ enjoyment with the band.”
Trombone section leader and equipment manager Louie James Magcalas (c/o 2024) said the band represented the school well and it was fun to not only see other schools perform, but also to socialize with them and connect the image that the band program is more than just music.
Preparing for the festivals was challenging with practices from 2:30 to 6:30 on Sundays and two hours on Wednesdays for a total of six hours per week. Magcalas said even though the rehearsals were hard, it helped build the idea of endurance. Magcalas feels a lot of the band students here are very persistent and trying to succeed even though they get some criticism.
“You can’t really grow as a band student if you’re not willing to take criticism,” Magcalas said.
Bailee Chang (c/o 2025) is the color guard section leader. “But that’s only a name.” Chang said.
“We all take responsibility for each other and all contribute equally to help each other learn,” Chang said.
“Our instructors and section leaders can only take us so far. A lot of it is up to ourselves. And I think the hard work that everyone puts in is really awesome to see.”
Nakamoto said next year’s performances will be more thoughtful about the themes and get more into the marching band culture which requires a lot more in depth visual dancing and playing music with a story behind it.
“So that’s what we’re going to try pursuing for next year. But this year, I think it was a really good starting point. We sounded really good,” said Nakamoto. “We did the fundamentals of marching band, and we also represented McKinley well.”
