Marching Band on the field. Photo by Elisa Matos

By Elisa Matos

What is Marching Band? According to Merriam Webster, marching band is “a group of musicians who play instruments while marching together at a parade or sports event,” But if you ask any of the 150 members of PHS Marching Band, they would define it to be so much more than just “playing instruments while marching together.”

Marching band season starts in late June and ends in November. In those six months, the Passaic High School Marching Band practices five days a week, minimum, for three and a half hours each day, at least. Looking and sounding good takes a lot of practice. It takes a lot of work to make it look so easy!

Jennifer Sanchez, color guard captain, said, “Marching band is very complex in many ways and there is so much more to it than just moving around a field”. There are many things to take into consideration like possible show themes, the size of the field, the “shapes” that they want to make, the number of students that are participating in that years’ show, the number of students per section (instrument or color guard).

To make all these things happen together in one fluid form takes a great deal of organization, skill and talent, which is where band director, Mr. Christopher Rusca steps in. There certainly is a lot on Mr. Rusca and his staffs’ plate. Each section is in responsible for learning their music, if you play an instrument, the flag/rifle/dance work if you are part of the color guard. So the whole thing is the combined individual attention to detail that gets combined into a massive whole.

To be part of marching band takes 100 percent commitment and dedication. Joanne Majdanski, color guard-captain, says she never would have thought that the words “sorry I can’t I have practice” would be the most difficult words to say.

Band director, Mr. Christopher Rusca, rallies the troops. Photo by Elisa Matos

However, it was that effort for four years, that is representative of just one part of the commitment and that hard work eventually paid off in skills that she now uses in her everyday life. Skills like time management, confidence, and leadership.

The PHS Marching Band had a very successful 2018 season. Coming in first place at the Yamaha Cup competition at Rutgers University, winning the state competition at South Brunswick High School, and then winning second place at nationals, which was held at Metlife Stadium.

What led to such success? One thing that was in common between Mr. Rusca, Joanne, and Jennifer’s responses was that hard work, dedication, and the hunger to learn allowed for a great season. Besides winning, being in the band gets its participants a second family. Congratulations to the Marching Band.