By Janet Son
Trabuco Hills High School
Grade 10___11/29/10 – An anxious audience checked their watches; it was almost 7:30 PM. Finally, a white wave appeared at the left side of the stadium, moved center-stage in unison, and formed in a “synergy circle”. Cheering started when the drum majors saluted to the judges that their band was ready. A message is heard: “Twisting, this is Dragon 1-5 checking in with you,” and the performance starts. It was showtime for the Trabuco Hills High School Thundering Mustangs Marching Unit.
On November 13, 2010, Trabuco Hills High School hosted the 18th annual Tournament in the Hills (TITH), a marching band and color guard tournament. 24 bands from all over California participated and were divided into five classes based on size from A to AAAAA.
Quincy Nguyen, tournament director and visual captain head, explains how the bands are judged. “For each of the five classes, there five awards given to schools that score the highest in each of these categories: High General Effect, High Music, High Visual, High Percussion, High Auxiliary. In the Afternoon Show (A/AA/AAA) and in the Evening Show (AAAA/AAAAA), the highest scoring school is awarded the Sweepstakes Trophy.” THHS took home first place in Class AAAA, High GE, High Visual, and High Music with its show entitled, “Military Flight Plan”.
How did Trabuco Hills come to host its own tournament? Dr. Howard Stephens, the director of the instrumental music program at THHS, explains, “With the organization of a new marching band circuit, The Marching Band Association of Southern California (MBASC) in 1993, Trabuco Hills was one of the designated sites for tournaments and actually hosted the championships for three years. The circuit merged with The Western Band Association (WBA) in 1996 and has hosted the tournament since.”
TITH means a lot to the music program because it is one of its biggest fundraisers helping to pay for music, coaches, instruments, and equipment. Students and parents volunteered to run booths and help make the event a success.
“The camaraderie and hospitality of the volunteers for the spectators and performers is unmatched by other schools,” Nguyen said.
TITH has become tradition at Trabuco Hills High School and alumni return to watch the tournament every year. Many of the band members had fun although they had to work hard for their show.
“What I thought was fun at TITH was giving the Tithmas gifts and doing our show for all our fans and them cheering for us,” Michael Stevenson, a freshman saxophone player, remarked.
