Silver Tarpon Band Shines at Pigskin

By LARRY GAGE
Special to the PRESS

The Port Isabel Silver Tarpon Marching Band closed out the 2015 marching contest season in fine style over the weekend.  They received straight Division I ratings from all judges at the annual Pigskin Marching Festival on Saturday at Donna.

“Yes, I’m very, very pleased,” head director of bands Scott Hartsfield said this week.  “The music went really well and the marching went really well.  They were very focused from the halftime performance at Rio Hondo the night before.  They were just in the zone on Saturday and they were ready to go.”

The band should have been in three contests before Pigskin but had to stay home from the Rio Hondo contest two weeks ago when one of its most important instruments, the synthesizer, was down with an electronic failure.  So the band came into Pigskin with only last week’s contests at Donna and San Benito under their belts.

“I thought all the kids played to the level of expectation that I would have hoped,” Hartsfield told the Press.  “We pushed the kids to their peak level.  They did a really, really good job.”

Sophomore marimba player Freddy Cimermancic also could not find much to criticize about the band’s performance.  “Everybody put in all the effort and built it into one performance.  It was a group effort.  It wasn’t just one individual – it was everybody together.”

As for his own performance on the marimba, Cimermancic said, “I thought it was my best run by far.  It sounded really good.”

Snare drummer Grecia Sandoval had reason to be happy with her section’s performance; “It was the cleanest we’ve ever played.  We won Best Drumline in 4A.”

With band numbers weighted much in favor of the freshmen and sophomore classes, Hartsfield expects no drop-off in talent or performance for next year’s marching band.  “It’s going to be a lot stronger next year.  There were some kids out on the field that were so young that they had no business doing what they were doing, but they did it.”

Two home football halftime performances remain for the band, starting this Friday when Corpus Christi West Oso will come into Tarpon Stadium for the third district game of the season.  This will be the first time this season that the band will be able to put the entire show on the field for a home game.

Want the whole story? Pick up a copy of the Port Isabel-South Padre Press, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2015/10/23/silver-tarpon-band-shines-at-pigskin/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.