On Saturday, October 17th, New Berlin West Marching Band went to the Wisconsin State Marching Association State Competition. The band’s performance scored 61.85 out of a possible 100.00 points and placed seventh out of seven in class AA competition.

The band displayed their field show entitled “Infected” which features a zombie apocalypse that sweeps through the band.

“The infection starts with our Color Guard Captain, Allie Warner,” states Drum Major, Dani Sipos. “She then infects the rest of the Color Guard and the infection travels through the band until I get infected.”

The marching Band, unlike concert band, is conducted by a student that is called the Drum Major. This year the NBW Marching band was under the direction of senior, Dani Sipos. Then to help guide the band to success the section leaders,this year senior, Allie Warner, color guard captain; senior, Elena Hausmann, brass section leader; senior, Wyatt Thomas, low brass section leader; senior, Colleen Horvat, woodwind section leader; and junior, James Karolek, percussion section leader. The advisors for the band include director Timothy Ekenberg and percussion instructor Colin O’Day.

The band has found many struggles throughout the year, the biggest one being marching in step.

“We worked on marching fundamentals all season to fix this problem.” Ekenberg said.

“[Fixing the problems is] just a bunch of work on it until we get it right,”Sipos claimed, “(The band has) put a lot of time into it.”

On the day of the competition everyone has their way of getting ready. Sipos stated, “I do everything I can to make the band feel good.”

“I just kinda show up,” Ekenberg says. “I make sure that everything runs smoothly and leave it up to the band parents and Dani to do everything else.”

At Whitewater the band performed for three judges and got a score of 61.85, which was a jump of 1.45 from their last performance a week ago at Cudahy.

Alex Borchardt, center snare drum player, stated “(The score) was less than what most people expected, but we still did a good job.”