“We are competing more with ourselves, trying to better our score from last year which was just above 80,” band director Darin Graber said. “We even took fifth in the marching caption (award category), which is huge in our class.”

This year’s show was called “Riddle Me This,” which Graber said investigated The Riddler and his personalities. 

“Our show was exciting; the kids worked hard and enjoyed the show. Our band is motivated by the journey of putting together a program and the performance and being part of something, more than trophies,” he said.

Even so, the Miners took part in the Western Band Association competition in October at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California and beat 16 other schools to bring home first place for their class.

The program has grown during Graber’s tenure, with the marching band being champions in 2017 and 2018 before the restructuring of the state championship. The color guard was state champions in 2012 and 2013 and the drumline took the title in 2022.

“When I first came, there were 40 kids in the band total — that was everyone — color guard, percussion, drum majors,” he said. “It’s been a 25-year odyssey to build a competitive marching band program here and I’m enjoying each step of the way.”