The Eaton Fighting Reds marching band has been hard at work, attending summer camps, Saturday rehearsals, and morning practices at 7 a.m. to prepare for their big community performance. Currently, the band’s driving goal is to have the entire show completed by Sept. 11 for the Marchathon, the bands first community event.

This year’s marching band show is entitled “Home” and is comprised of four movements. A movement is one section of the show; the first movement is the opener, the second is the ballad, the third is the percussion feature, and the fourth and final movement is the closer. The band members are working extremely hard to clean and perfect movements one through three, and get movement four on the field. A trumpet player, Feliz Martinez (22), who is participating in her second season of marching band, said, “I am feeling a little overwhelmed, but excited especially because we didn’t even have that[the entire show] on the field last year.” The Marchathon is a new opportunity to show the community how the band rehearses and how the show comes together in the end. Martinez was a part of Eaton’s first Marchathon last year, and had her own opinion about the event. “I feel like the Marchathon went okay last year…not a lot of people knew about it, so it was kind of weird, but I feel like it will be a little more organized this year.”

The Red’s intention for the Marchathon is to show the community their drive, passion, and prowess for the sport, and what goes on during a routine rehearsal. With this, the community gets a chance to see the bands’ improvements. Martinez has been a part of the improvement and has witnessed it herself. She has seen and heard the refinements that have happened throughout the season and believes that “We have improved on our sound quality a lot since last year, and also, compared to last year, our marching style has improved, too.” Although the band has made leaps and bounds, there are struggles that delay the advancing of the group. “The band might struggle with keeping focus throughout practice,” said Martinez. Every team or group deals with their own struggles that can hold them back, but the important thing is that they move past them. The Marchathon is a chance to show off the comebacks of the band and wow the crowd.

The Eaton High School Marchathon gives the marching band the right to show off their extravagant show “Home” of the 2019 season. It also gives the communtiy an insight to their strenuous and detailed practice. Martinez said she is certain “The band is ready[to take on the challenge] because we have already worked so hard throughout the season…”.