Every year during the fall season, the Norwalk Marching Band takes the football field during halftime with a new group of freshmen. 

The marching band received different types of recognition at the four contests they went to. At the beginning of the season at the Shirley Moran Marching Band Festival at Linn Mar HS placed third and won the award for the “Best guard” in class 4A. In the last competition of the season at Waukee they got a Division 1 rating at the state marching contest. Also at Waukee for the night performance, they ended up placing fifth.

Molly Olson, a freshman in the saxophone section, said that the first time she got onto the field, she was nervous but learned she had nothing to worry about. 

“Nobody is going to judge you when you mess up and it’s not the end of the world,” Molly said.

 Mikayla Day, a freshman in the flute section, said one thing that really helped her was the flute section leaders. 

“They helped me a lot with music and memorization, and taught me how to read the marching scores,” she said. 

Eli Prier, a freshman in the saxophone section, said that the band directors helped him. 

“They always helped me when I had a question, and if I did something wrong, they would help me with it,” Eli said. 

Some of them said that they enjoy more of the stuff they do outside of the practices to build more community like the section breakfasts. Mikayla said that she thought section breakfast brought them closer together. 

“Got more bonding time together, a lot of inside jokes, and it’s just a good time to hang out, and it really helps out friendships,” Mikayla said. 

Molly also thought that section breakfasts helped her build more community with everyone in the section. 

“Yes, it’s brought us closer together and helped me learn more about everyone,” she said.