The Granite Hills High School Indoor Drumline and Guard teams dominated the season with standout performances, even if their final placements at Championships didn’t fully reflect their journey.
While both teams poured their hearts into their final shows, they narrowly missed out on their ultimate goals. But rankings alone can’t capture the dedication and grit these students showed all season long.
Indoor Drumline is a program where all schools compete against each other through drumline and percussion instruments team (PIT) performances in the school gym. Indoor Guard is the same concept but schools compete through guard performances. Granite Hills runs its indoor teams through PPAACC in Bakersfield.
This year, Granite Hills participated in five competitions. Granite Hills’ Drumline team placed first three times, and the guard took first place four times.
Both teams put in more than exceptional work and made history. It had been 15 years since Granite Hills High School’s Indoor Drumline team earned a first-place finish.
The Guard team is led by captains Novalean Brixey, Dominic Palomar, and Sarai Diaz.
The Drumline team is led by captains Ava Angco, Jose Navarro Reyes, Grace Gonzales, and Abraham Navarrete.
These groups couldn’t be run without an instructor/director. Guard is lucky to have an amazing instructor like Bianka Meza. She gives her teams endless support and motivation to continue and succeed.
“This season was a very good season overall,” Brixey said. “It opened new experiences and challenges that we were able to overcome together. It gave everyone opportunities to grow so it was a very exciting season.”
The Indoor season runs from the beginning of January through late April. It leaves a lot of room for growth for all students and without help it can get very stressful.
“I believe this season went really well. I think we all grew a lot as a team and individually,” Palomar said. “I’ve noticed each and every one of our members on the team get stronger, not only with equipment but with performing. I am beyond proud of every single one of them.”
On the other hand, Drumline had a difficult but astonishing season. Throughout the season, the only source of help was the band director, Mr. Milligan. One teacher trying to help 26 members was not easy, so the students had to take matters into their own hands and do much of the work.
“We managed to get a third-place medal while having zero instructors and one band director, which shows a lot even when these other schools have four to six instructors and got ninth or 10th place,” Navarro Reyes said.
Growth is the best word to use because these students really did see growth in themselves. Becoming a leader and taking over a program like this is not something to brush off.
At PPAACC Championship Finals, Granite Hills Indoor Guard was awarded the second-place silver medal out of five outstanding groups. Following them, the Granite Hills Indoor Drumline placed third, earning the bronze medal out of 10 groups. Neither group took first place, but all the students and supporters of the program know that they worked very hard and their determination did not go unnoticed.
“As a member who’s been in the percussion for all four years, it’s amazing to see the other members grow and have growth as leaders, as students, and as band members,” Gonzales said.
The program can only move forward from here. Drumline had striking records this year as did the color guard team. The band director, Mr. Milligan, is already planning out next year’s season.
“Going forward, I hope next year we keep some things that we did this year,” Mr. Milligan said. “It’s very important that we stay consistent, everyone needs to be bought into the show and to what we do. It’s a mentality, it’s a long season so as long as everyone’s locked in we should have another great season.”
