The 2018 Fountain Hills High School band cemented its place in Falcon history on Nov. 3 when it became the first marching band in school history to take first place at the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association (ABODA) State Marching Festival.

Going into the Festival the Falcons were already in a top spot, being ranked second in their division.

One of the perks of having the high rank was the band didn’t have to spend a full day at the festival.

“It was a quick competition,” band teacher Lynn Truby explained. “We were on the top of our division, so because we had such a high score we were the second to last band to perform. Usually there’s a lot of waiting until the awards but this time it was quick.”

Perhaps the greatest benefit to being ranked second in a division of 33 bands is the students felt confident going into the competition.

“The feeling of going to state never really happened,” Marcus Fonvillesaid. “Normally I have always thought state is the end of our season, but it just didn’t feel like that. When I was on the field I just thought, ‘This is not our last performance.’ Now it’s not.”

Other band members echoed Fonville’s sentiment.

“It only really hit me after we were done,” Casey Timms said. “I was like, “Oh, that was our state performance. We just did.’”

The show that the band performed at state is the same one that they performed at the homecoming football game on Oct. 19.

Entitled “A Night at the Movies,” the show opens with the 20th Century Fox theme, followed by pieces of music from movies such as “Skyfall,” “The Incredibles” and “The Greatest Showman.”

The performance has been pretty much the same throughout the band’s season, but they have made small changes based of judges’ feedback.

“In our first competition we didn’t have our closer in yet,” Fonvillesaid. “By the second we did have it and, from there, changes were just small things here and there. Things like body movements, such as kicks from the band or the fight scene in the ‘Incredibles’ portion.”

These minor tweaks were only added in after the band had nailed down the original routine and could perform it without thinking.

“We are just in immense focus zone,” Quinton Hemstreet said. “For us on the field, we are basically focusing on Marcus and our peripherals. You can’t think about anything else or you are going to mess something up.”

Truby said she knew once the band finished its performance that they hadn’t made many mistakes at all.

“Everything I was seeing and hearing all sounded pretty much on,” Truby said. “I thought they had a great show and when they came off the field I didn’t think they had missed many marks. But by that point it is out of our hands anyway.”

Even when ABODA was announcing the awards the Falcons were still unsure of how they would rank.

“I was on the field with two other band members accepting awards,” Fonville said. “They don’t give out the scores, they give ratings. So when we got an ‘Excellent’ there were many others who did as well. So we don’t know how we matched with them. But then they called our name out for super state and I almost started crying. The whole band was going crazy.”

The rankings weren’t announced at the festival so it wouldn’t be until later that a friend from another band would text a Falcon to tell them that FHHS had been ranked number one.

The next step for the Falcon band is a performance at super state, where the top eight bands from the state festival will compete at Sun devil Stadium. Super state takes place on Nov. 17 with Fountain Hills preforming at 11 a.m.