Marching Band is one of the largest and most accomplished clubs at our school. They train just as hard and as much as any other sports team in our school. Marching has been proven to help members with academics and student development. The Class of 2014 members of Marching Band agree that Marching Band has been a defining part of their high school experience. These seniors include David Bowder, Nina Fan, Pete Forhan, Sam Greenwald, Christian Kolo, Kristan Maxie, Corinthia Morgan, Courney Neal, Abhinav Reddy, and Kiersten Wilde.

Marching Band is run by band directors and teachers Mr. Chad Mielens and Mr. Karl Stein. West Bloomfield High School seniors Christian Kolo and Nina Fan were the drum majors. This year the theme was ‘Firebird’, and our Marching Band came in 12th place in Fight I with a score of 74.8 at the MCBA Championship. The MCBA stands for The Michigan Competing Band Association. MCBA member bands are divided into four flights of competition according to high school enrollment numbers that are based upon the State of Michigan second semester count. These marching band contests could be compared to any sports game or debate tournament in terms of competition. The group becomes very close, even training at Band Camp over the summer. Drum Major and Conductor senior Nina Fan comments, “So much stuff happened at band camp- especially this year. We played so many pranks on the teachers. We put Mr. Stein’s photos all over the lunch room… somehow Sam Greenwald found a senior picture of Mr. Stein and it was his prom picture… we just printed out three hundred copies of that and put it all over the place. It was nice.”

Senior Anjana Rajagopal also spoke of the fun she had in Marching Band, “It’s been a great experience. I met a lot of cool people, we played a lot of fantastic music and it was amazing getting to compete outside the high school, going to states at Ford Field, Nationals at Indianapolis, and Regionals at Pontiac Silverdome. It was truly a great experience that I will never forget.” Mellophone player Abhinav Reddy agrees that Marching Band is a great team saying, “I’ll miss the great community that the band provides, and Pete.”

Director Mr. Chad Mielens believes the future is brighter for these seniors because of Marching Band, “Marching band helps prepare students for the future in many ways.  Marching band teaches students to work together in a group towards a common goal. The intensive schedule also instills work ethic and forces students to develop a good time management skills.”

You can learn more about WBHS Marching Band at their website, wbbands.info, where they have a weekly newsletter sharing their most recent accomplishments. Congratulations to all the West Bloomfeild High School Seniors for all their musical accomplishments and thank you for helping bring great music to our sporting events, competitions, and parking lot!