January 30, 2026 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

Get to know Senior SJO Marching Band member Bryce Collins

The community surrounding Marching Band is filled with some of the most talented, passionate, and downright amazing people I’ve ever met. We are all so dedicated to this art and put our hearts and souls into putting forward the best performance we can, while still maintaining a bond so tight it makes us feel like family.


My favorite moment of this experience was Junior year when we put our medieval-monarch themed show Captiv on the field, and specifically at the Metamora Band Invitational, we placed first in and achieved every caption award in our class, something that our school had never achieved before. Being part of our school’s history might be one of the coolest moments of my life and seeing the look on all of our first-year marcher’s faces that showed that this was something they never wanted to quit gave me so much happiness.


My favorite show is impossible to pick since they’ve all been absolutely fantastic, but if a particular answer is required, honestly this year has been my favorite. Sure, this hasn’t been our absolute best season, but the music is fantastic. Mr. Hess, our band director, picked a very brass-heavy show that utilizes our 7 person trumpet section very well and has been an absolute blast playing.


This year’s uniform doesn’t really compare to my freshman and junior year shows. Freshman year’s uniform was unique as we were dressed up like Beethoven and had these absolutely atrocious grey wigs that really encompassed the classical music era. But last years show where we had archer hoods and satchels reinforced our theme perfectly.


The biggest misconception is that we’re all weird. Sure there are a couple of outliers as with any other group, but for the most part, we’re all just having fun and not worrying about what people think about us. That’s really the best part of the band too. We’re all a little off in our own sense and we’re not afraid to express that so it makes us all super friendly with each other.

in Life, People
Banner
Related Posts

‘Girl Scouts is not all arts and crafts’

January 19, 2023

January 19, 2023

” Hannah Fox wanted to help feed her community. And for her Girl Scout Gold Award she attempted to do...

10 things you don’t know about me…. Katie May

July 17, 2019

July 17, 2019

Every week we ask a local resident to tell us 10 facts about themselves. This week we spoke to St....

10 things you don’t know about me… Taylor Baldner

January 29, 2020

January 29, 2020

This week we asked Taylor Baldner of Taylor-Made Photography to tell us 10 things about herself. Baldner has recently joined...

5 things you don’t know about me… Josiah Thaman

August 7, 2019

August 7, 2019

Josiah is in the running for the title of Little Prince! He is six years old. We asked him to...

“It couldn’t be done” read by Erica Guelfi

June 16, 2020

June 16, 2020

It Couldn’t Be DoneBY EDGAR ALBERT GUESTSomebody said that it couldn’t be done      But he with a chuckle repliedThat “maybe it couldn’t,”...

Senior Spotlight… Joey Acton

July 9, 2019

July 9, 2019

Every week we ask an SJO senior five questions. This week we talked to Joey Acton. This post is sponsored...

10 Things you don’t know about me… Terri Rein

November 6, 2019

November 6, 2019

Every week we ask an area resident to give us 10 interesting facts about themselves. This week we spoke to...

Kids Say…. What do you think a farmer does?

December 23, 2019

December 23, 2019

We ask students to tell us what they think a farmer does each day. Here are their answers. What do...

Parkland announces candidates for commencement

May 6, 2019

May 6, 2019

Parkland College congratulates the candidates for its 52nd Commencement Exercises. The graduation ceremony will be held Thursday, May 16, at...

Ogden Rose Library gets a facelift

September 6, 2022

September 6, 2022

The Ogden Rose Library is getting a facelift. The library is undergoing the first part of a remodel.Currently, new flooring...

Ask the doctor: Do adults need vaccines?

November 4, 2020

November 4, 2020

“Do adults need vaccines?” By: Jeanelle Murphy, DO Yes, adults definitely should have vaccines and keep up their childhood vaccines...

‘No one believed in our kids and our teams more than he did’

April 24, 2024

April 24, 2024

Dan Wright loved life.  He loved his family. He loved his community.  Wright passed away on March 19 in Florida. ...

‘We can’t wait to be back’

April 8, 2020

April 8, 2020

Amy Gibbons, the owner of Salon 192, is urging people not to do anything rash. That means resisting the urge...

SJO football clinches playoff berth with win at BCC

October 10, 2024

October 10, 2024

The St. Joseph-Ogden football team can beat teams in multiple ways. Kodey McKinney can drop back and unleash accurate passes...

‘I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it’

December 28, 2022

December 28, 2022

Girl Scout Emily Elsbernd knew what she wanted to learn while working on her Gold Award. “I knew all along...

Comments
Leave a Reply