The first bell for school to start is at 7:18 a.m, but some students must arrive earlier for activities before school. The Leesville Marching Band arrives at 6:30 a.m for their morning rehearsal and the wrestling team arrives at 5:30 for their morning practice.
During morning rehearsals, the band works on the show that they perform at the football game halftimes and marching band competitions. In these rehearsals they polish their music and work on musicality. The marching band also works on the right notes and rhythms so that they sound their best.
The morning rehearsals take place here at Leesville in the band studio to Kayla Crossley, a three year marching clarinetist said, “I feel like during marching and symphonic season it’s definitely necessary so we can get two different types of music done and make a lot of progress.”
Another group that gets to school quite early to practice is the Leesville wrestling team. During their morning practices, they strengthen their endurance and weightlifting. The wrestling team does not practice wrestling at this time of the year because it is a Wake County policy saying practicing wrestling is permitted before the season begins. Nate Henshall wakes up at 5:00 a.m to be at school for his 5:45 a.m practice. Nate said “it’s very difficult but it is definitely rewarding and pays off.”
The band and wrestling team arrive early to strengthen the little things that help make a big picture. It seems to be working the band won grand champ at every competition they attended last year. The wrestling team last year had an amazing season. Maybe every competing group in the school should come early for some extra practice.
