MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Colquitt County High School band has transitioned into incorporating eight graders.

Now with two games under their belt — a home game and a neutral site game — how have these group of young men and women have adjusted to the band life?

Liz Savage, CCHS band director, thinks they have risen to the challenge despite a few hiccups.

“The band has performed with a lot of heart the first two games of the season,” said Savage. “We performed in Mercedes Benz and chose to wear our costume uniform since it was such a beautiful venue. We wanted the students to have the opportunity to feel a full performance in Mercedes Benz even though our entire show was not on the field. Due to some rain and lightning issues over the last two weeks, we weren’t able to get our second part up to performance quality so we chose to perform just Part 1 again with some stands tunes for the home crowd last week.”

The toughest part about the start of this year isn’t the learning curve, she said; its the beginning of school as the band has students from CA Gray and CCHS, so they have to closely monitor the students’ attendance in and out of the classroom.

“If the students are not at practice, they are unable to learn the new material each day and so they are unable to perform on Friday nights,” said Savage. “We are also working to improve our marching each week. We are in ‘learning mode,’ learning as much of our show as we can each day. Soon we will be in what we call ‘cleaning mode.’ That is when we clean the show that we have put on the field.”

Despite going through growing pains and the beginning of the school year rush, everyone is optimistic about the future and where they want this band to be.

“The overall mood and attitude of the band are hungry,” said Savage. “Right now, we have a lot of students who are so excited about performing in general and they are working hard to motivate others at each and every rehearsal. We also still have a lot of new members to the band in general that are learning what it is like to be a part of a team and a part of something bigger than just themselves.”

The band usually practices three days before the game day on Fridays. Their main goals are to get better every week and see the progress on the field and in the sound of the music.

As competition season starts in mid-September, they know they will have to be sharp as ever, and Savage thinks that regardless of what happens the community should acknowledge and be proud of what these students are doing.

“What we do is more than just Friday nights — and the pride that the students take in what they do is something our community should also be proud of.”