The Pride of Yukon marching band placed sixth in the Oklahoma band association state finals. It’s been five years since the marching band made it to finals and fourteen since they placed in finals. Just making finals is all they hoped for, but to place was a dream come true for all the band members. 

“Being on the same field as these great bands like Broken Arrow and Mustang, and we made 6th place, I thought it was pretty crazy,” senior Brooke Steincamp said. 

Without certain changes in the band, it wouldn’t be where it is now. One of the biggest changes would be their new band director and the growth of their leadership team. 

“Our leadership team changed a lot, It’s amazing. I’ve never once heard someone be negative,” sophomore Kayden de Leon said, “everyone is just so positive I feel like the leadership team changed the whole program and made us closer.”

The talent of the band was always there but they had no guidance until Diana Williams arrived at Yukon giving the band more opportunities to improve. 

“We’ve always had great marchers and great players. We just had a great change in direction. I feel like she shaped us, she took the raw talent and defined it,” Brooke said. 

The marching band is one of the biggest programs in the school. The band makes up most of the school’s population which makes a very strong impact on the school. 

  “I think it’s going to impact the whole school because we’re so happy about our win that we are just so positive around the school and I feel like it’s kind of changing the rest of the schools’ attitude,’’ Kayden said. 

Even through covid and the hard times, the band has improved and has gotten stronger and better. With the support from the school and everybody in it, they have skyrocketed to one of the top bands in the state.

“We finally got a glimpse of hope this year. We knew that there was some stuff falling apart, but now somebody took charge and took the bad parts and built us back up,” Brooke said.