The Pebble Hills High School Marching Band swept the competition at the Coronado T-Bird Invitational with their show titled “Opera-tunity Knocks” which featured musical selections from Mozart, Puccini, and Wagner, Saturday afternoon, Sept. 25.

The band won first place, along with multiple captions including Outstanding Soloist (junior Santiago Alvarez, trombone), Outstanding Woodwinds, Outstanding Brass, Outstanding Percussion, Outstanding Visual, Outstanding Music, and Outstanding General Effect. 

“We went in there and proved to ourselves that all our hard work…paid off and turned into something I could never begin to imagine,” junior Monserrath Castillo said. “Watching our drum majors [Nicole Ramirez and Osvaldo Rubio] walk in with a huge trophy in their hands left me in shock.”

Going into the competition, the marching band felt confident. After months of rehearsals, they had more of the show complete at this point than in previous years.

A successful full run-through before the competition unified the group, junior drum major Nicole Ramirez noted the group’s growth from band camp was outstanding.

“Some of the people in our band had never marched or played, so believing in ourselves has really helped,” Ramirez said. “Now gaining more confidence from T-Bird we know what we’re capable of and how far we can go.”

The marching band’s first competition experience of the year was impacted when the poor weather lead to the cancellation of finals. After debate, directors came to the consensus to use the finals qualifying schools’ preliminary scores to distribute awards. 

Looking forward, the band hopes to continue striving at their next competition, U.I.L. Region 22, on Oct. 9 at the SAC.