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Pace and Lopez early college high schools are headed to the Alamodome in San Antonio for the 2023 UIL State High School Marching Band Championships after qualifying over the weekend during the Area G 5A Marching Contest at the La Joya ISD Stadium.
An entourage of the Pace Viking and Lopez Lobo marching bands will head out Sunday in charter buses, with instruments, equipment and props loaded in cargo trucks and band boosters, parents and support personnel also traveling for the culmination of “Bandtober” at the statewide contest.
Band members at Pace, Lopez and other Brownsville ISD comprehensive high schools have been at it since late July, practicing long hours after school and on weekends to provide a key driver of school spirit during halftime shows at football games.
The Lopez band, under the direction of Ramon Vasquez will perform “I Spy” at 11 a.m., while the Pace group will perform “Plume, the Power of the Pen,” at 4 p.m. Raul Ramirez is the director.
“It’s highly competitive and there’s so many good groups down here. We’re ecstatic to have two of our groups that have qualified for the 5A state marching championships again,” BISD Fine Arts Director Michael Garcia said Monday.
“We’re very proud of all our marching band kids. … The skills that marching band provides to them are skills that will be useful later in life. They learn to be part of the team, they learn hard work and dedication. They learn to be responsible because they have to be responsible to the other members to learn their part. There’s so many skills that are learned through the marching band. Those are things that employers love, people that are going to be able to work in a team setting, people that are going to be reliable and responsible,” Garcia said.
Fall is the busiest and most visible time of the year for BISD’s student musicians, Garcia added.
“Things don’t ever truly slow down, but I think this is the time of the year that our music kids, our kids that are in band, are most visible. They all have spring concerts and solo and ensemble events throughout the rest of the year, but this is the time that creates the most excitement for the community just because they tend to be much more visible because of all the football games, the marching contests and all that, but they’re working hard all year long,” he said.
Tickets can be purchased through the Alamodome website or Ticketmaster. A livestream feed will also be available for purchase, according to the BISD Fine Arts Facebook page.
