While Greenville Independent School District is finishing up their construction projects around town, the Greenville High School Lion Pride Band is just starting the construction of their new half-time show.

Coming off the first Sweepstakes win in over 35 years, the band is excited to welcome new freshmen and returning friends, and they’re more than ready to get to work creating the new show. The band has grown to 130 members, and the Color Guard has grown to 20 people for the fall.

The annual Summer Band Camp started August 1st. The first two weeks were full days, 8-5, the first half of which was spent outside learning a new style of marching. After an hour break for lunch, band students moved inside for sectionals. Each instrument received extra training from a highly skilled student teacher from Texas A&M University at Commerce- except for the trombones, who were being instructed by the highly talented former band director for GISD, Aubry Williams. By instrument, the students learned the songs for halftime, pep rallies, and football games. The band also learned songs for the Flaming Flashes’ routines.

The third week of Band Camp was in the afternoon from 4 - 6:30pm right before the first day of school.

Incoming band students had the advantage of meeting other students, including upperclassmen, before the first day of school. This often makes the transition back into regular classes a little easier.

Woodwind Captain, Laura Foote, says “I’m super excited for my senior year. I think this is going to be the best year so far, if band camp is any indication!”

Students are excited about the music. There are three “movements” to the half-time show, with one song per movement. Those three songs are: Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground;” Radiohead’s “Creep,” and “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light ’Em Up)” by the group Fall Out Boy.

Kolton Evans and Saul Rodriguez are the senior and junior Drum Majors, respectively, for this year’s band. In a joint statement, they said “the 2016-17 Lion Pride Band was going above and beyond on just day three of band camp! We are looking forward to an extremely successful marching season. We are hoping that our peers will have fun while making good memories and winning awards.”

The first game of the season is August 26 at North Garland. The first home game is September 2, which will be preceded by a pep rally in the high school gym.