This year’s marching band season will soon be coming to a close with Grayslake North having a strong band season. North competed against multiple schools around Illinois, where North has been coming out on top of many of these competitions.

One competition is Marengo Settlers Day; it is a competition at Marengo High School. Each school is categorized from Color Guard, Percussion, Brass, Woodwinds, and Drum Majors. Grayslake North competed against last year’s 3A division winners, Evanston and Grayslake Central. Surpassing both those schools, Grayslake North won its division in 3A with a total of 78.8 points.

“Winning first place at Marengo felt really good. It’s always nice to see that all your hard work is paying off!” said senior Nathan Gulliver, a marching band member.

Further along in the band season, Grayslake North participated in the Illinois Marching Band Championships at the University of Illinois. They won second place in division 4A with a total of 79.45 points against five different schools. They lost first place to Washington Community High School by only 2 points. North placed fifth rank overall against 22 schools. “Winning second place at U of I was really exciting! There were a lot of great bands in our division, so we were happy to get second,’’ Gulliver said.

Band starts rehearsing near the end of July and continuously adds and refines their music until the October competitions.

“However, learning the drill—the movements of the field—takes a little longer, and putting together the music and marching takes even more time. The exact amount of time really depends on the length of the song. Once we’ve learned it, we continue refining both the music and marching until the end of the season,’’ Gulliver said. ‘‘Last year was a really good season, but I think our show this year was even better. This year our music and visuals really came together nicely to tell a story throughout our entire show,’’ Gulliver said.