January 1, 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

10 things you don’t know about me… Beth Mills

April 10, 2019

April 10, 2019

Beth Mills, the owner of Travel by Beth in St. Joseph shared 10 interesting facts about herself with us! This...

Cummings hopes to continue work as trustee

December 7, 2020

December 7, 2020

Village Trustee Terri Cummings has big goals for the village. Short term, Cummings hopes to contribute to the betterment of...

Talk of the Town with Superintendent Tom Davis

May 1, 2019

May 1, 2019

Every week the St. Joseph Record is reaching out to a village official, school superintendent, school board member or village...

‘The first one to tell you how important you were to him’

September 5, 2022

September 5, 2022

Connor Wienke made sure people knew how he felt about them. Whether it was a smile, a friendly comment or...

10 things you don’t know about me… Kathy McCormick

May 13, 2021

May 13, 2021

What is your favorite childhood memory? Playing outside with the neighborhood kids – every summer day until dark. What was...

Kids Say…

August 1, 2019

August 1, 2019

Students from PVO South tell us if they would like to be a farmer. This post is sponsored by Longview...

‘I’m so thankful and grateful for this opportunity’

February 11, 2022

February 11, 2022

Amy Gibbons is celebrating a birthday. Salon 192 opened two years ago today. “The past two years have definitely been...

Appl can hear the good news, and that’s a good thing

May 8, 2019

May 8, 2019

Ten years ago, Candi Appl was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease. Meniere’s disease is an inner ear disease that usually affects...

Employees help co-worker during time of need

February 8, 2021

February 8, 2021

The staff at the St. Joseph Subway wanted to help April Patton. Manager Adam Porter said his co-worker said she...

‘We lost a great young man’

October 22, 2024

October 22, 2024

When Corey Thompsen was in high school at St. Joseph-Ogden, he and his fellow cross-country runners would race across the...

Wagners give back in a variety of ways

May 29, 2020

May 29, 2020

Jim and Jen Wagner like to help people. They have helped people through the pandemic at their business, Wagner Signs...

Kids Say….

May 2, 2019

May 2, 2019

Every week we ask five students from a local school to answer a question on a worksheet. This week the...

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...

5 Question Friday with Drama Director Chandler Dalton

October 28, 2022

October 28, 2022

The SJO drama department is producing “The Internet is Distract—Oh look a kitten!” Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at...

Love of the game: Two St. Joseph residents umpire at state softball tournament

June 3, 2019

June 3, 2019

Slipping on wet grass actually helped Karl Black’s first experience working as an umpire at the high school softball state...

Comments
Leave a Reply