Senior color guard captain Eleanor Rosean stood with the Prospect Marching Knights (PMK) in Hancock Stadium of Illinois State University on October 19, competing for the second time that day. As she performed the color guard choreography, she found herself having to adjust her routine by tilting her head all the way back in order to direct the emotion in her routine at the audience – the audience was that high up.

While they may have been performing the same show that they had practiced in Prospect’s George Gattas Stadium countless times, the environment was entirely different. The stadium was packed with more people than had ever attended a performance at Prospect.

“It’s so cool to be … surrounded by people who are excited to see you perform,” Rosean said. “It’s seriously just magical.”

PMK was performing in the final round of state performances. The schools in the state competition were split into six classes; Prospect was in class 5A.

Prospect ended up winning class 5A, qualifying for the final round, and getting second place in the entire competition, but this is not what band director Christopher Barnum was most proud of.

“It wasn’t about placement,” Barnum said. “It wasn’t about how we did compared to anyone else. It was really about them knowing that they had gone out there and put on their very best performance.”

Band members agreed that the satisfaction of a job well done was greater than any external reward.

“It’s cool to have that first place in our class, second place overall,” Rosean said, “but honestly, what was most important to me … was that I had two strong performances that I was really proud of, and the feeling I had when I finished those shows was something that I’m never going to forget.”

After returning to the buses at the end of their state competition, the team had their “senior circle” – a band tradition where everyone makes a circle around the seniors and plays “Amazing Grace” to recognize them. It was a very emotional night for the team, and one that Rosean greatly appreciated.

“We all put everything we had out there, and just getting to hug everybody and talk to them … was so special,” Rosean said.

PMK spends a significant amount of time together, through their long days of summer band camp, frequent after-school rehearsals, and regular performances during competition season. This has brought them closer together as a team.

“It’s very tight knit,” junior drum major Olivia Tokimoto said. “You have friends that you meet freshman year and then you stay really close friends with them all throughout high school … and honestly, it feels like family.”

Tokimoto has spent all of her years at Prospect on PMK. She started as a member of color guard freshman and sophomore year, before becoming a drum major this year.

While teamwork is vital to creating such a precise and lively performance, the process for building each custom show begins far before the team actually sees it.

A team of show designers from across the country collaborates the previous winter to generate concepts and the theme for the next year’s performance.

This year’s theme was “Passages,” which can be interpreted in many different ways. Barnum believes that this year’s theme is about his students’ legacy.

“This is one of the ways that they were writing their passage in the story of the history of our ensemble,” Barnum said.

Woven throughout the performance this year was the song “In My Life” by the Beatles. This song is accompanied with solo vocals, which are not typically included in PMK performances. Junior band member Cristian Nava was the vocalist who had this unique role.

“It felt like a link between two of my favorite things: band and choir,” Nava said. “It really moved me and I started tearing up as I sang it.”

This element of the show is just an example of how PMK has evolved over the time.

Rosean recalled her freshman year when the world was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. During that year, the color guard did not use any props, but the group has evolved, now including them in nearly every performance. 

As time goes on, Tokimoto is confident that PMK will continue to improve. With her one year left at Prospect, she hopes to experience more amazing moments like the one she had in the final round of state competition.

“It honestly felt like euphoria,” Tokimoto said. “That was the greatest performance we had.”