COVID-19 has affected many people, including the marching bands that use to compete against each other. Last year Robinson’s marching band cut short their performances on the field, they played songs such as jazz and didn’t attend any competitions.

This year, their season is back to their Pre-COVID activities.

“Last year due to all the restrictions most of the bands in the county did not do a marching halftime show, we are the few that actually did,” band director Christopher Revett said. “We did two songs we had way less movements because we just spent less time and we didn’t have any competitions or anything.”

However, this year they expect everything to be back to “normal.” The band is competing a show called “By the Sword.” The show details the a knight’s quest to retrieve the sword of Camelot.

The band has four competitions culminating with their MPA competition.

“So this year the competitions are back and we’ve been working on our show that is obviously longer and it has way more moves,” Revett said. “So we’ve started competing again on Saturday this month and we’re kind of back to where we were before with working on a longer show production.”

At their first competition, the Seminole Sound Spectacular, the band placed first in the 3A division. They also were best in color guard, percussion and brass.

This year’s drum major is optimistic about this show.

“Last year was weird because of COVID and all that we had a show but we didn’t compete or anything it wasn’t as good as it could have [been],” Noah Fingley (‘23) said. “It was just kind of like a weak show. This year I like this one, it’s a good show lot of sets and good music.”

There are some challenges for this season.

“It’s been kind of hard because we have almost two groups, freshmen and sophomores, that have never really done the competitive thing before so it’s trying to get them both to understand what competitions are and how they work,” Revett said. “We’ve had a lot of students that have been quarantined or out or sick so we are working on getting through those challenges.”

Last weekend was Ronald “RJ” Sharp’s (‘24) first competition.

“It was really cool, I like how the other bands were very supportive and cheering us on the whole time,” Sharp said. “I was nervous because it was my first competition and I’m a sophomore so it was a pretty good experience but nerve racking.”

After the first competition, the band staff were happy to be competing again.

“I would say that the team is very excited,” Starlets director Siara Espejo said. “I’m very excited and we are really happy to see other marching band programs and see the level of passion that the activity still has and generates for students and staff. People have come back and are working hard and excited to be back just like us.”