When the last football game ends and the stadium lights turn off, a simultaneous relief and dread is felt in one section in particular: the band.  Many of Etowah’s band members find themselves with a newly cleared schedule after months of practicing and performing. The question for these students becomes what to do with said free time.

“It’s kind of overwhelming to go from four and three days a week of three-hour practices and a football game on Friday nights to just practicing my concert band music. I actually can sleep now, and when I go home, I’m not immediately worried about eating food that won’t make me sick at practice later on. I miss marching band, but the free time is liberating,” Rachel Ensley, junior, said.

Most band students are ready to get some needed sleep for more than just a few hours in between late nights of practice and early mornings of school.  For others, the work does not stop.

“[I want to] work on school, scales, grades, homework,” Alex Furman, sophomore, said.

Even though band season is over, it does not necessarily mean that band members have time to relax.  Much of their day is spent catching up with everyone else after months of hard work.

“[I want to] join Winter Guard and catch up on five AP classes’ worth of homework,” Sydney Kahn, junior said.  

Whether students plan to work hard or hardly work after their season ends,  members of Etowah’s marching band still have something to look forward to once the music stops.