Excellence. The one word that describes the Manhattan High Big Blue Marching Band.

For over 20 years the marching band has been consistently excelling at festivals such as the Central States Band Festival at Kansas State on Oct. 2. But what does excellence mean? For MHSMB, it means being dedicated to the process.

“You’ve got to love the process,” senior Jenna Dominguez said. “You have to love how you are doing it and how you get to that moment, so you know when you get to that moment all your hard work has payed off.”

Similar to that of an athlete, band members must be dedicated to their craft. Their process is no easy task, they have to grind every day. They have to love playing their instrument and love the hard work that makes them the best that they can be. They have to appreciate who helps make them the best that they can be.

“The band staff is outstanding,” band director Joel Gittle said. “With that being said, of course, it kind of bleeds into great work ethic from the kids. That is what I try to teach the kids, to fall in love with the process of being great, if you can do that and put the work in during the process than the rewards will be there.”

The rewards have surely been there for the Big Blue Band. Captivating the judges at the festival and earning themselves the highest honor possible: Division one, or superior. This means that the band was the best that they could be; however this is not the ultimate prize for the band members.

“I [couldn’t] really care less about the number that they put at the top of the page,” Gittle said. “I would rather hear the roar of the crowd. We write shows for the Friday night football crowd because that is more important than festival. Our motto is sound good first, then give them something to watch because if you sound good first, they will turn and listen and you got to get their attention right off the bat to do that.”

Even knowing that they have done all the work to perform, the venue is changed and that can be nerve racking. Playing at Bill Snyder Family Stadium is very different than playing at the much smaller Bishop Stadium. The domed shape of Bill Snyder Family Stadium projects the sound making it louder and truly a different experience.

“It was awe inspiring,” senior Harrison Jones said. “Marching into the stadium with taps and seeing all the bright lights, the big crowd, and the judges box is a really different feeling than Friday night games.”

Lots of emotion was rushing into the band members as they gathered themselve, preparing for the big performance. All their hard work was about to pay out and no one wanted to be the one to mess that up, however tensions were light and the band focused more on having a good time rather than worrying about the performance.

“Everybody was just so hyper and so ready to perform,” Dominguez said. “When we finally started walking over there we were all just laughing and talking. I can’t really describe it other than just intense hype for the performance we were about to do.”

The band had many early morning practices and long days of rehearsing preparing for this day and now that it is over they are ready to face their next challenge head on, which is their Thanksgiving trip to Disney to march in the parade.