The Emerald Regiment has had a winning season so far, taking first in the Emporia Festival and the Olathe Marching Invitational earlier this month. Band director Brandon Lesando said he picked the five competitions the band went to this year. 

“We did really well [at Olathe] because we got first place in our class with all the awards, and then in finals, which is all the bands together, regardless of class and size, we won the whole show with the music award, too,” Lesando said.

This weekend, the Emerald Regiment will compete at the Kansas Bandmasters Association championship against other state 5A and 6A schools. 

“We’re hoping to at least get in the top five,” Lesando said. “That’s our goal every year but I think we definitely have a product that can easily be top five or top three this year.” 

After KBA, the band will head to St. Louis for a Bands of America Super Regional Competition on Oct. 26. Senior brass captain Reagan Toman said the group has put in many hours of rehearsals since band camp in July.

“We’re really hoping to just polish this product as much as we can,” Toman said. “We’ve been working on it for a really long time but there’s always new creative elements that we can add to take it to the next level.”

Despite having 29 seniors in marching band this year, Toman described the group as a “big family” and said she will miss the community aspect when she graduates.

“Since there’s so many of us, you’d think that we aren’t all as close, but we have a senior group chat,” Toman said. “It’s really fun to just have these people who remember all of the same things and have been through similar journeys over the past four years.”

Toman said she is looking forward to competing at her last KBA competition, where the group has earned first in their class and second place overall for the past two years. 

“It’s really fun to just watch other bands and see all the work that they’ve been putting in for so long, just like we have,” Toman said. “You get up early and you stay up late doing this, just like I do, and your work is incredible.”

Lesando said he is proud of how the band program has grown over the years and how the students have stayed kind toward the other competitors even as they have gotten more competitive.

“I think we also have a lot of respect because we know that if other bands are beating us, they are working just as hard as we are,” Lesando said.