By Ryan Kupperman, executive news editor 
The Prospect Marching Knights (PMK) wrapped up the band season by competing in St. Louis, Missouri on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21 at the “Bands of America” super regional, and ended up taking ninth place overall out of 65 other schools.
According to the Director of Bands Chris Barnum, the PMK competed against schools who represented 10 different states, where each school performed once in the preliminary round. During preliminaries, the PMK placed third in their class — divisions of schools based on how large the school is — and won an award for Outstanding General Effect. The top 14 schools from preliminaries then advanced to the finals.
“It was really all about seeing the kids together, and enjoy being together and enjoy performing,” Barnum said. “To see our kids be together and [doing] what they do is something I love seeing.”
Senior clarinet player Zoe Leone feels like she put out a great amount of energy for her last show and is proud of the rest of the band for placing well in the competition.
“Ninth place is definitely not an easy place to get, especially with so many bands there, so the fact that Prospect was able to do it was really cool,” Leone said.
Drum major junior Rebecca Rose believes that the whole band performed really well especially since she thinks the band hit a “rough patch” early in the season.
Although the band finished their marching season on a high note, Rose is upset because she has had to say goodbye to the seniors in band in a tradition called Senior Circle. According to Rose, she has learned from and gotten very close to many of the seniors which makes senior circle very emotional.
Even though she doesn’t want to say goodbye to the seniors, Rose is still excited for next year’s band season.
“I hope to see everyone take away what we have done this year and just improve immensely,” Rose said. “I’m excited to see all the new freshman and how every junior takes the role of a senior.”
Much like Rose, Leone also has high hopes for the PMK next year.
“I just hope they (the PMK) will continue to do what they are doing,” Leone said. “Everyone seems to have this common goal of wanting to get better and I hope that mindset will stay after I’m gone.”