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Students sweat out ASU Band Day

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Trumpet players from the Sun Devil Marching Band perform on the Frank Kush Field as a part of the 55th annual ASU Band Day on Saturday. Bands from more than 30 high schools across Arizona competed in the event.

Sophia Negron stood in the parking lot of Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday, enduring 100-degree temperatures while a friend adjusted her blue, white and gold band uniform with safety pins.

Nervously fiddling with her flute, the 15-year-old sophomore of Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix described the stress of performing in the cavernous stadium.

While preparing for Saturday's 55th Annual ASU Band Day event on Friday, "Some of us were breaking down because there's a lot of pressure," Negron said. "I know I broke down ... because I was so afraid."

Negron and the other 22 members of the Carl Hayden marching band were one of 33 Arizona high schools that participated in Band Day at the stadium on Saturday.

The event, sponsored by the Sun Devil Marching Band, featured ensembles in three different categories based on enrollment and were scored by seven judges who evaluated their musical and visual performance while providing ratings of superior, excellent, good, fair and poor.

Bands that rated superior or excellent are eligible to participate in the State Marching Band Festival in November.

Martin Province, director of the Sun Devil Marching Band, said the event is open to any Arizona school band, regardless of its size.

He added that the turnout of 33 schools is slightly less than the 40 that attended in 2001 and the 40 in 2002, due to both the event's scheduling and the fact it occurred during some schools' fall intersession.

Carl Hayden's band director Craig Ruby said what the band lacks in size, it makes up in heart.

"Especially with us being such a small band," he said, "we really have to work twice as hard."

The band had its share of supporters; it received a standing ovation from some of the approximately 1,000 people gathered at the stadium.

Tasha Dupuis, elementary education sophomore and clarinet player, remembered the pressure of playing at the event as a member of Dobson High School's marching band.

"In high school it's intense because you're going to get scored and you're going to get graded and you're going to get told what's wrong," said Dupuis, now a member of the Sun Devil Marching Band. Dupuis said playing in the stadium is now "more of a fun thing" because the band gets to show its stuff to high school students and show them what fun it is to play at ASU.

Province said the event is a recruitment tool of sorts for the Sun Devil Marching Band that gives potential ASU students a chance to gain familiarity with both the band and the stadium.

"That's what today is about: If they come here and they feel comfortable, they may decide to come to ASU," Province said. "Then, once they're coming, we try to get them to be in the band."

Reach the reporter at benjamin.leatherman@asu.edu.


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