As the Band of Pirates won gold for the second time in a row at ISSMA, Mr. Danielson, band director, was very excited for the kids. 

“We set our expectations high for the students and they came up and they met those,” he said. “They played wonderfully and they looked very good, too.”

To get to this point, he had to make sure that the kids inside here are working on the music and perfecting it the best they can. 

“We practiced diligently and usefully outside, even in bad weather,” he said.

Mr. Danielson believes that the key to success was the kids. “They wanted to achieve the goal and they worked hard for it,” he said.

Senior drum leader Nomi Green helped lead the team to victory.

“We did a lot of practicing so whenever we practiced, we tried to stay focused,” she said. “We always had fun, too.”

She felt good because it is her final year in the band. “Getting gold back-to-back was cool,” she said. 

She also thinks that the hardest part with bringing everyone together for the competition was a lot of different schedules. 

“Everybody in the band has something going on and its hard to get everybody to practice all the time. Our sideline was kind of big and if you missed a certain amount of rehearsals you had to go to the sidelines and make sure our sets look good,” she said.

Mr. Danielson also said that the night was so memorable because of the look on the kids’ faces after they won. “ They knew they did the best job they could and they fought very hard,” he said.