Warriors on a Musical Battlefield : Valencia: Defending division champion Canyon High School takes third place as 21 marching bands compete in a Rampage of refrains.

Canyon High School drum major Jason Castagna said preparing for a major band competition is “like waging World War III. It’s very intense.”

Castagna, 17, admitted the analogy was a bit dramatic, but others on the squad preparing for the annual Rampage band competition Saturday at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita said the comparison was apt.

Gearing up for their 15-minute performance, band members said, was like getting ready for battle--psychologically and physically. Their weapons were trombones and flutes, saxophones and tubas. Their enemy: cross-town rival Saugus High School.

In the 84 minutes between arriving at the stadium and taking the field, the Canyon band underwent a gradual transformation from a rowdy bunch of gum-smacking teen-agers to a polished marching band moving with a military precision.

The annual event, the largest band competition in the Santa Clarita Valley, attracted 21 marching bands from three states. Canyon band director Randy Gilpin likened the competition to “22 halftime shows in a row without any football to get in the way.”

But for some members of the Canyon Country band, the competition was more important than entertaining a stadium full of football fans. It was a chance to defend the division title they won a year ago. And the pressure was on to repeat.

“We want to kill them,” flag girl Sheri Grenat, 14, said. “If we beat Saugus, we’ll be happy.”

From 11:21 a.m., when they spilled out of yellow school buses, until 12:45 p.m., when they belted out the first notes of their four-number show, drawing on songs from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Jesus Christ Superstar,” members of the Cowboy Posse had little idle time.

Scuffed shoes were slathered with a fresh layer of milky polish. Unruly long hair was braided, pinned, sprayed, plastered back and tucked up into white caps. Instruments were tuned and then fingered silently as musicians practiced the music they would later play. The myriad buttons of the green-and-white uniforms were carefully checked to make sure none was left undone.

Band members said their mental strategies for preparing themselves for the competition varied, from going over every step of the 15-minute routine in their heads to ignoring the event altogether. Many said being the last band in the division to perform helped ease the tension, because they did not have to watch their competition perform after them.

“Being the first band is a lot harder than being the last,” flutist Lori Bartschi, 16, said.

Meanwhile, the flag girls, spread out in formation across the parking lot warm-up area, counted cadence as they spun their shimmering flags. Co-captains Shannon McClenaghan, 16, and Vanessa Williams, 17, shouted orders like a pair of Parris Island drill instructors wearing short skirts and gold lame.

“Squad, atten- hut !” McClenaghan shouted to her charges.

“Sir!” the girls yelled back, jumping to attention.

McClenaghan loudly urged the 14 girls in her unit to stand straight with their chins up and chests out. The leaders’ orders brought laughs and retorts.

But the quips were quickly silenced as the band collected in formation and marched to a muffled drum cadence into the stadium. At 12:45 p.m., the band belted out the first note of its show--a rumbling D.

Months of practice took over, and the band moved like spirited automatons around the field, each musician, flag girl and dancer knowing his or her spot on the grass.

Fifteen minutes after it began, the performance was over, and the band marched out of the stadium, walking in near-silence until it reached the buses behind the field, where the chatter began again. The members of the band were pleased with their performance.

“Was it perfect?” Gilpin asked as a throng of teen-agers wriggled out of their uniforms and stowed their instruments.

“No,” was the response.

“Was it good?”

“Yes.”

And so it was.

The band went home with third place.

The results:

Class C Division-- First: Taft High School; Second: St. Anthony High School; Third: Rio Mesa High School; Fourth: Ventura High School.

Class B Division-- First: Oxnard High School; Second: Lompoc High School; Third: Canyon High School; Fourth: Saugus High School.

Class A Division-- First: San Marcos High School; Second: Simi Valley High School; Third: Palmdale High School; Fourth: Foothill High School.

Open Division-- Sweepstakes: West High School; First: Arvin High School; Second: Bakersfield High School.