School Marching Bands Take the Field to Win

Jeff Sharman, a 16-year-old sousaphone player from Laguna Beach, is proof of the power of mental visualization.

Before the Laguna Beach Artists high school marching band paraded onto the football field during a marching band competition at Orange Coast College on Saturday afternoon, director Jeff Foster ordered the musicians to close their eyes and meditate quietly.

“I’m concentrating on the music,” whispered the sousaphone player, lifting his head up briefly to explain to the uninitiated.

Minutes later, Sharman was swaggering on the field, deftly improvising a sousaphone solo as the 27-member marching band and drill team performed a snappy version of a rock ‘n’ roll number.

“I didn’t really get that nervous,” Jeff said later. “I don’t think about the people watching.”

The Laguna Beach High School band was one of 32 high school marching bands and drill teams from Southern California and Las Vegas to compete in the fourth annual South Coast Invitational Field Band Tournament at Orange Coast College’s LeBard Stadium.

Sponsored jointly by the Orange Coast College Community Services department and the Costa Mesa High School band boosters, the event has grown each year in reputation, and promoters say they hope it will one day be one of the premiere competitions in the state.

“It’s truly a quality event,” Orange Coast College spokeswoman Marge Ball said, adding that the two sponsors each expected to collect about $1,000 from ticket sales and entrance fees. “To have this many bands here is a compliment. It’s a fun time for everyone.”

But it was more than fun for the high school performers, some of whom drove for hours in cramped yellow buses to compete in the tourney. It was serious business.

Each band was scheduled to perform for 15 minutes, offering its best 1990 halftime show to the judges.

Standing at attention on a practice field just before their performance, the Buena Park High School Marching Band members repeatedly played several difficult passages of the “Flintstones” theme song.

“You got to get the sound out and project more,” yelled director Dan Kalantarian to the 37 green-uniformed players forming a triangle in front of him. “It’s not enough to put the fingers down. Now keep your horns up.”

Although it was the Buena Park high school band’s first year in the competition, drum major and lead trumpeter James Quorion said that the ensemble has “been getting a lot of respect. He (Kalantarian) has really helped us put this band together.”

The competition lasted all day as the bands, divided into six categories, marched in intricate formations, their instruments glittering under the sun that heated the fall day to a comfortable 75 degrees.

The stands were filled with parents and friends of the performers. Some boosters found it hard to choose a favorite.

Joan Davis, a Buena Park junior high school teacher, watched eagerly on the stands as her son, a trumpeter from the Sunny Hills High School band, performed. Some of her former students were performing with the Buena Park High School band.

“It’s pretty funny,” she said. “My own kid is with this one (band), and my other kids are over there.”