Students flood through the gym doors, pushing through the crowd of their peers dressed in leis, cowboy hats, and fishnets to quickly find a seat with a clear view of where five bands would soon play. As the bleachers fill, the freshman group, first to play, runs pitch checks and makes last-minute adjustments. The room buzzes with conversation that soon dissolves as the group, dressed up as country musicians, begins their first piece: “Johnny B. Goode.”

“The (freshman) class president, Angus Murphy, reached out to us (musicians) and said to get a band together for Spirit Week,” band freshman Zavier Elvena said. “I’m super excited. This is my first year, so hopefully I can do it the next three years (as well).”

The performance featured 35 minutes of the student groups’ renditions of popular songs respective to their grade’s assigned music genre. SGA began planning for Spirit Week and Battle of the Bands three months beforehand, purchasing supplies and dividing Spirit Week jobs like decorating and event coordinating among members. When looking for students to participate and form the grade-level bands, members of SGA, including senior class council co-president and digital media senior Joshua Molnar, considered factors like musical skill and availability. 

“(Spirit Week is) really just a big collaborative effort,” Molnar said. “We posted a Google Form on Google Classroom for Spirit Week participants, and we just gathered the people who filled that form out. They get together for rehearsals, see if that chemistry works out together, and overall, (they) just create an amazing performance.”

For the student musicians, the preparation for the event began almost as soon as the selection process was complete. Each grade’s band selected and practiced their setlist weeks in advance during rehearsals. 

“We’ve been practicing for over a month now, but we’ve been kind of putting it together since last year,” theatre sophomore Juliana Priddy said. “We knew we wanted to do it (Battle of the Bands) again. I love the energy of performing and how the audience is cheering you on.”

Each band had free reign when constructing their setlist, the order of songs, and the length of each song segment. The only rules were that the pieces must not contain profanity or mature themes, must follow the music genre assigned to the grade, and must be performed in around five minutes. If these rules were broken, it would result in disqualification of the grade from the competition.

“This is my first time doing Battle of the Bands, and there’s a really fun process getting together with everyone, picking out the songs, figuring out what works and what doesn’t timing-wise, and also (thinking about) what the crowd would know,” vocal junior Gabriela Loveland said. “It was really scary at first, but then as soon as we got up there, the energy from the junior class felt really nice and kind of surreal. It was a really fun experience, so I’m happy I did it.”

As the bands played songs including “Jolene” by Dolly Parton, “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan, and “Rock Your Body” by Justin Timberlake, the panel of judges made up by math teacher Traci De León, foreign language teacher Thomas Ruth, and social studies teacher Michael Esopakis watched closely, taking notes throughout. 

“We had a rubric that had different categories,” Mrs. De León said. “One was crowd appeal, (and) one was ‘Did it fit the theme of the class?’ Then, the rubric had a tiered guideline of what a perfect score versus what a low score in that category would be. We just went around and circled how we felt they did in each category. I had a front-row seat, so it was fun.”

After the seniors finished a rendition of “Rock Your Body,” Principal Blake Bennett applauded the performers before revealing one last surprise act for the audience: the “Dreyfoos Magic Band,” a staff-led band consisting of band director Evan Rogovin, orchestra director Jeffrey Adkins, jazz director Christopher De León, music dean Stefanie Katz Shear, math teacher Craig Adams and assistant principal Drew Dawson.

“I thought the surprise was really fun,” communications sophomore Humberto Miranda said. “I wasn’t expecting it, but seeing the teachers come out in costume was cool, (and) the songs were great.” 

As Ms. Katz Shear sang the last lyrics to “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” the Battle of the Bands ended, concluded by an eruption of applause from the hundreds of audience members. 

“It (the effort put into the Battle of the Bands) was so rewarding and so worthwhile,” Molnar said. “All the weeks and months of planning and the sleepless nights (were worth it), and I just think it was the best it could have been and amazing for senior year.”