Midway through summer, band students were faced to make a decision: go to the homecoming dance or the band contest. Originally the first contest was going to be Saturday Sep. 29 at Cy-Fair but, due to weather complications, was cancelled. That means that their first contest will now be at Katy on Oct. 13 ㅡ the same day as the homecoming dance.

Students quickly informed the band directors of the predicament and they instantly began to discuss how they would resolve this, marking the beginning of a new complication: what if the students wanted to go to finals?

This year, Tomball Cougar Pride Marching Band only has one and half contests. The first contest is approaching in only a couple of weeks, but it won’t even be an entire contest. The band has the opportunity to qualify for finals but this won’t change whether or not the students are coming home early.

“Obviously it’s more beneficial for band to go to competitions rather than homecoming,” freshman Rameesha Ehtesham said. “The bands get judged and shown how to improve so that we can become the best band in the state, or even the nation. Homecoming is every year, and always the exact same; a football game and a dance. Competitions get you closer to your band friends, and improve your band as a whole.”

Many of the marching band members were mainly looking forward to experiencing homecoming with dates or even friends and didn’t want this to be interrupted by the fact that they had a band contest.

“I think we should be able to go to homecoming because we have lots of band commitments but only one homecoming every year,” sophomore Caroline Klein said. “I was hoping to go this year because I didn’t go last year.”

The resolution was that the band was not to go to finals ㅡ even if they qualified ㅡ and would be home in time to go to homecoming.