“ It was my first cruise,” senior and Drum Major Hannah Williams said. “It was so much better than I expected, I would recommend a cruise for anyone who has never gone on one .”

According to Williams, the trip was something she would definitely do again, and she brought home some wonderful memories from the experience.

“One of the best parts of the trip was when we went snorkeling in Cozumel,” she said. “I loved it, we saw tons of exotic fish and schools of barracuda.”

Another one of the aspects the seniors enjoyed about the cruise was the 24 hour All you can eat buffet and the numerous group activities going on throughout the day.

“I really liked the food,” Williams said. “plus they also had lots of shows going on throughout the entire trip. One night we went to a talent show, and every night they had several comedy shows.”

Although the cruise staff had lots of activities planned, the group also enjoyed their time in Mexico.

“When we went to the beach in Progreso and Cozumel they had massage stations,” senior Majorette Grace Cho said.  “It was the best part of the cruise, it sounds kinda shady, but it was so wonderful. It was the best money I’ve ever spent, I got two massages while we were there.”
The group had such a wonderful experience that most of them did not want to return.

“I didn’t like coming home and having to make my own food,” Williams said. “Being on the boat spoiled all of us, everything they served was wonderful.”

Another one of the negatives about returning home was getting back their land-legs once they got off the boat.

“I felt like a was still on the boat for days,” Williams said. “It felt like I was always leaning.”

After having such a great time on the trip several of the seniors hope to return to take the cruise again with their family and friends.

“I really want to come again,” Cho said. “I had a lot of fun and I want to come back.”

The LHS band will perform at SFA Stadium for a chance to be recognized as the best military marching band in the state. This will be the first time in years that the band has competed in NAMMB.

In the evening, Honor America Night will kick off with a hot dog and apple pie dinner at the Lufkin High School Cafeteria from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Both the Lufkin High School and Middle School bands will perform beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Abe Martin Stadium. Each grade level band will perform individually, and then the seventh grade, eighth grade and high school bands will do a combined performance.

All military branches will also be recognized throughout the program. The evening will conclude with a spectacular fireworks display.

“We didn’t compete, we just did an exposition,” said senior Paige Parker, one of the Co-Head Majorettes. “It was a nice change from other things that we’ve done because we normally just twirl at football games.”

Although this was the girls’ first appearance at the Forest Festival, Parker feels that they did a good job on stage.

“We showed all five of our field routines and we all did really well,” Parker said. “The girls did their best, and that’s what really matters.”

According to senior Lauren Hancock, the other Co-Head Majorette, this experience will help to prepare the girls for other future performances.

“It was good preparation for all the younger twirlers on the line,” Hancock said. “It kind of scared them because they we closer up than at a game.”

Parker feels that the performance at the festival gave the girls’ an advantage for future presentations.
“The event was great,” Parker said. “It was good extra practice for our two-baton routine, and it helped work out everyone’s’ nerves.”

Hancock also believes that the Majorettes benefited from the additional performance and that it was good idea to try out new things with the girls.

“I think Venetia, our twirling sponsor, was proud of our performance and glad that we branched out and did something different this year,” Hancock said. “It was also good practice for our UIL Competition and our performance coming up in Nac.”

The Majorettes will be performing in Nacgodoches on Oct. 13 and competing  on Oct. 20 at the Twirling UIL Solo and Ensemble Competition hosted at Lufkin High School.

From 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m., an All American Dinner including hot dogs, chips, a drink, and America’s favorite desserts–apple pie and ice cream–will be served in the Lufkin High School cafeteria.

Dinner will be followed by a 7 p.m. program with a welcome from Head Band Director Scott Williams. After a prayer and the pledges, the LHS trumpet section will play the National Anthem. Soon after, guest speakers Rep. Jim McReynolds, Joe Deason and Brian Crews will present Star Spangled Moments honoring the veterans. After recognizing the veterans of every branch of the military, the 7th, 8th, and high school bands will be performing military style marching performances dedicated to those who served in the military branches.

Williams, along with senior P.J. DeJesus  play Taps in reflection of those who lost their lives while at war. The last performance of the night will be a combination of the 7th, 8th, and high school bands performing two patriotic songs while a spectacular fireworks show is taking place over Abe Martian Stadium.

Band students are selling tickets for $5, which includes the All American Dinner and entry into the stadium for the performances and fireworks show. Tickets also can be purchased at the gate of Abe Martian Stadium, or the entrance to the cafeteria for the same price.

The rating comes from weeks of morning practices and Monday night rehearsals to perfect the seven-minute drill.
“Monday night practices are a good way to get together, learn and work on the fundamentals to succeed at contest,” senior Lacey Harrison said. After spending hours practicing and making everything look perfect, the band felt prepared and ready to get a first division at contest.

After the band’s 8 p.m. performance, the members waited anxiously in the stands for their ratings from the three judges.

“The fact that countless hours of hard work came down to one performance,” senior Courtney Mask said, “was extremely nerve racking.”

The band received a first division rating, which is the highest rating that can be received, by all three of the judges.

And because the band had a perfect score at the marching contest, members decided that they would go to another competition, NAMMB (National Association of Military Marching Bands) Oct. 31 also to be held at SFA.

In this competition, bands in each classification battle each other for first place. 

In class 5A, there are only two bands that Lufkin will compete against, Kingwood High School and Atascocita High School.

Senior Ray Flores suffered from a collapsed lung on Tuesday morning. The chest pains began after band practice that morning and had become unbearable during second period. According to Flores, he was rushed to the Emergency Room after a trip to the nurse’s office.

“The chest pains had become more hurtful once I had woken up after the movie that we were watching in class,” Flores said.

The band members were informed Wednesday morning that their fellow band member had been hospitalized and senior Ariel Hardin, who has been in band with Flores since the sixth grade, said she could not imagine Flores being hurt.

“When I first heard about Ray, I was in total shock,” Hardin said. “He’s such a good baritone player. There was no way that he could be that hurt.”

Band Man Scott Williams says that he plans to make accommodations for Flores if the doctor has issued a statement describing the extent in which he can push Ray.

“We need to see what the doctor has to say about Ray’s condition,” Williams said. “We are a band family and will take care of each individual as needed.”

Although Flores could have been permanently disabled to participate in the band, he said the experience won’t affect his extracurricular life and he still plans to keep moving forward.

“Even though my chest hurt almost to the point it was unbearable,” Flores said, “I have been in band for the past six years, so why in the world would I get out after all of that hard work?”

Flores said he plans to push himself every day and to not let anything stand in his way of living life to the fullest.

“There is no reason for me to stop moving forward,” Flores said. “This incident has made it to where I want to do more while I still can.”

The Lufkin High School Concert and Symphonic bands participated in the UIL Sightreading Contest April 8 and 9 at Whitehouse High School and neither band played as well as they would have liked. The Concert band made a 2 on sightreading and a 3 on stage, and the Symphonic band made a 2 on stage and in sightreading.

“We (Concert band) were very disappointed with our results,” said freshman Amber Holland, a member of the Concert band. “We worked very hard and yes, we did our best, but it was not all we expected. Maybe next year we will do a little better and hopefully we will be able to make Sweepstakes. We will not let this get us down. We will be stronger next year and show everyone what the LHS band can really do!”

Senior Pernell Moore, a member of the Symphonic band and one of the three drum majors this year, said, “We were upset about our scores on Sightreading. Although the scores were bad we look at it as a chance to try harder because no 5A band received Sweepstakes. So, technically, no one did well.”

The band’s spring concert will be on May 14 at 7 pm at the Lufkin Middle School auditorium.

The Lufkin High School band is preparing for the UIL Sightreading contest that will be hosted in Whitehouse on April 8 and 9. The band’s previous contest was at Solo and Ensemble Contest at SFA on Feb. 6 and 7, and they came home with 83 first division ratings.

Freshman Amber Holland practices for the Concert Band sightreading contest later this week at Whitehouse High School.

Freshman Amber Holland, a member of the Concert band, said she expects herself and the Concert band to do very well.

“The band, including me, has worked long and very hard to get our music perfected,” Holland said. “I have to think sometimes if it is this hard on us as the students, then how hard does Mr. Butler (Concert band director) have it as the director. Even though the music is very hard and tiring, we all manage to do it. I know that all the work and time put into this music is going to pay off very soon.”

Holland added that she has been practicing every night trying to get her music perfected.

“I learned just having patience and working hard at something you believe can happen really does work,” she said. “I never thought that I could ever play this music at the start of the year and now the music is really fun for me to play.”

Senior Pernell Moore, a member of the Symphonic band and one of the three drum majors this year, said he expects the Symphonic Band to win Sweepstakes this year.

“We have put in more time practicing this year than what we normally have,” he said. “We started having practice at 7:30 every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which is what we do in the fall for Marching Contest. This is the first year we have actually taken UIL Sightreading Contest so seriously. Hopefully all the practicing will do us well.”

The Concert band will perform at Sightreading contest on Wednesday, April 8, while the Symphonic band will perform on Thursday, April 9.