Robinson marching band takes first place overall

On Saturday, Oct. 19, Robinson’s marching band placed first overall at the 18th annual West Coast Invitational that was held at Durant High School.  They ended the night with a total score of 71.35.

The marching band competition was an FMBC (Florida Marching Band Championships) sanctioned event that is used to qualify for the FMBC State semi-finals.

Robinson performed a rendition of Scheherazade, the story of One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.

Plant High School, our rival, was in the the same division. Since Plant was competing against us, tensions were high. Still, Robinson managed to out-perform them by 0.15 of a point.

Not only did they beat the school in their division (Plant), but the marching band also stole away the title from Alonso, Okeechobee, Calvary Christian, Durant, Osceola, and Brandon High School.

“We have just been working so hard,” Hannah Miller (’21), a mellophone player, said. “It was really awesome to beat Plant, you could feel the excitement and energy from the band.”

Robinson also won Best Auxiliary, Best Visual Performance, and Best General Effect on top of the Grand Champion title.

The preceding competition at Seminole High School wasn’t as successful. Being the first competition of the season, many of the performers were left with nervous jitters and consequently struggled.

“And to be honest, I think that since we have a ton of freshman just joining the band, I think they might have been nervous about it being our first competition. It was the first time we had really done something like that before, and we struggled with timing, balance, and just the music overall,” Chris Meguiar (’23), a member of the front ensemble/percussion said.

However, the band made a comeback with this competition’s win, and they look forward to growing together this season and bringing home more triumphs.

“I was really proud of the band’s improvement the previous competition that was two weeks ago,” Band Director Christopher Revett said. ” I was especially proud of our new members; their confidence levels were a lot higher and the students overall did a really good job representing Robinson high school professionally and with a lot of pride, so I was excited about that.”