Pride of Cove Band & Color Guard holds annual Spirit Spectacular

By BRITTANY FHOLER 
Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove High School Pride of Cove Marching Band gave Copperas Cove residents a taste of what to expect this marching season at this year’s Spirit Spectacular held at Bulldawg Stadium Thursday evening. 
Thursday’s event included introductions of this year’s CCHS Copperettes, Varsity cheerleaders and the Bulldawg varsity football team as well as the Pride of Cove band and color guard. 
The CCHS Pride of Cove have been practicing since July to become cohesive for this year’s program, which is bee themed and features both classical and modern pieces. 
Band students from both Copperas Cove Junior High and S.C. Lee Junior High joined the CCHS Pride of Cove Band on the field for part of Thursday night’s performance before the high school band and color guard members moved into position. Members of the Color Guard tossed and twirled their flags, rifles and sabers while band members played their hearts out and buzzed around the field. 
Thursday’s Spirit Spectacular was the first time the band and color guard had performed from this year’s program in front of a large crowd of people from the community. For the freshmen students, this year also marks their first year of marching. 
Donovan Fields, a Trumpet Section Leader, said that this is a culmination of the band’s hard work. Being a senior this year, this was his final Spirit Spectacular, but he was excited, especially for the younger musicians, he said. 
“I’m really excited to see like all the younger people, like the freshmen and then even the eighth graders and middle schoolers as they grow up to become musicians, I’m really excited to see their growth this year,” Fields said. 
The CCHS Pride of Cove Band played the first two movements of the show, twice to alternate some musicians in. Fields described the movements as being centered on bees and the chaos of bees moving in a way that is still orderly and efficient. 
The performance highlighted different instruments, including a clarinet solo by Cameron Pack. 
“I was definitely nervous, but in a way, this is all people from my hometown, so I was okay,” Pack said. “This is something I’m familiar with by now, and it’s always fun to just come and see people smile and have fun doing it.”
CCJHS Assistant Band Director Kenneth Marina said that this year’s Spirit Spectacular was even more exciting due to not getting to have one in 2020. 
He explained that having the junior high students able to participate helped give them a taste of what’s to come later on. 
“From a junior high band director perspective, it’s really enjoyable teaching them, getting their toes wet on understanding how marching band kind of works,” Marina said.
Marina also assisted in this summer’s Band Camp for the high school students. The band members started practicing fundamentals of marching in July and began working on the intricacies of the show on August 1.  He said that having the band play in front of a large audience and get that feedback from their reactions will only help them moving forward as they play at future games. 
Marina is also a CCHS alumni and was a Pride of Cove member. 
“I was part of this band as well as part of the Copperas Cove Junior High band, so being part of this thing coming up and then years later being a band director and seeing the traditions that they do, to see everything that they’re putting on the field makes me not only proud as someone who came from Copperas Cove, but as a director,” Marina said. “Seeing them fight through all the perseverance and all the things that’s going on, and especially when we get into high school and into school, they have their own homework; they have their personal lives; they have jobs; they have all this stuff, but being able to like focus on each other, focus on a show, focus on all that stuff is really making it really, really meaningful, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
In addition to acting as a way for the band and other organizations to show school spirit and show off their hard work, Thursday’s event also acted as a fundraiser for the Band and Color Guard Booster Club, with raffle prizes and one of the concessions stands open and operated by Booster Club volunteers. 
The Pride of Cove Band will be performing their full program at the half-time show of the Homecoming game this Friday, when the Bulldawgs play the Belton Tigers, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.