Jason Lomeda, band director, leads his students to perform at SoFi Stadium for the first time, marking a significant step in their growth as a performance group.
On November 4, 2024, band and color guard set their eyes on Sofi Stadium as they began to prepare for the competition against other schools. While preparing for the competition, Lomeda talks about the benefits of having an experience like this. Lomeda has gone to lots of competitions, but the SoFi Stadium was the next big step for the performing groups.
“This was just dipping our toes into the waters of something I want to do regularly. This is a long term growth, like the first step, kind of a thing for the students. We’re always performing in high school stadiums, and that’s like, it gets a little repetitive. It’s still always new. It’s always fresh. The opportunity to perform in a professional stadium like the SoFi Stadium, I thought would have made this a special year.”
“And to me, it kind of marks the first year of I guess a first step into the future, because I think that we’re seeing a lot of growth in our freshman class this year, and I want to continue to see that.” exclaimed Lomeda.
When it came to the competition; band and color guard performed a complex routine to impress the judges and by the end of the night they were placed in 8th out of a 10 spot placement. No matter the placement, Lomeda shared his positivity and openly expressed how much he’s proud of band and color guard.
“The show is not perfect by any stretch. Like, there’s still lots of things that we can improve on. But considering how busy we’ve been in the last couple of months and for them to have the solid one that they are proud of, to me, I can’t replace that with anything else. I’m proud of them. I know that they’re proud of themselves. So 10 out of 10. Super proud.” said Lomeda.
While we heard about Lomeda’s thoughts, what about one of the band performers? Band performer, Joshua Nava, believes that attending this competition not only improves their marching skills, but also their musical skills. He understands that it’s about getting rated and getting judged, but he wants to notice its benefits in learning.
“This event is just another competition to get rated, to get judged, but to help build our marching skills and our musical skills. Plus not all bands get to go, come to SoFi and participate in WBA, which is the Western bands association,” Nava stated.
Even though the competition made them nervous, they enjoyed every minute of it and loved the experience. The experience was able to teach them and help them grow into becoming a better performance group.
“It was a great time to come over here and actually participate in it. If I could score ourselves, I would say a 10 out of 10.” Nava exclaimed.