The Marching Sequoits accomplished a lot during October, a traditionally busy month for competitions and performances.

Antioch Community High School orchestra director Michael Riggs and ACHS band director Jonathan Untch have joined forces to direct this year’s marching band. They both have high hopes for the last few weeks of marching band, which ends with the football season.

“We’ve grown in numbers, which is good. We always hope that we’re getting better, and I think that we are,” said Riggs. He also mentioned that the student leadership—three drum majors and a leader for each instrument section—is much stronger than in years past.

Already, the Marching Sequoits have performed at the Grayslake North Marching Band Contest and the St. Rita Mustang Stampede. In Grayslake on Sept. 15 they won second place and won the Best Drum Major Award, of which they are extremely proud. On Oct. 6 at St. Rita they secured third place and the Best Winds Award. They were also a mere six tenths of a point away from the first-place school.

“[St. Rita] was our best performance to date—most solid overall from start to finish,” said Riggs.

Other band competitions include the Marengo Marching Band Contest in Marengo, Ill. on Oct. 13 where they competed against other high schools, playing over seventy pages of drill music.  They were awarded the Best Marching Award, a great accomplishment. Their largest competition was the day before Marengo at the University of Illinois on Oct. 12. The U of I event was an all-day competition with around fifty marching bands competing in Memorial Stadium where the Marching Illini perform. The ACHS Marching Sequoits were in a class with roughly a dozen other high schools.

Having two contests back-to-back, with practices, home football games, and other competitions sprinkled throughout meant that the month of October was a challenging one for the marching band. Students and parents are encouraged to support the ensemble by watching their half-time performance at the last home football game on Oct. 25.