Fossil Ridge High School’s 2025 state championship win marks the fourth year of victory for the marching band, which makes eight state wins since 2012. But what seniors will remember is the bonds they have made.

“I think we have a special group of seniors this year that, for them specifically, they were part of this group that’s won four in a row since their freshman year,” said band director Aaron Herman. “So it’s just been a high level of excellence since they started. And they really carried us through and did a good job leading the rest of the band.”

This year’s state competition on Oct. 25 at the Air Force Academy included beating Fossil’s main competitor, Legacy High School. 

“They’re working just as hard and even, like, harder than us ’cause they really, really want to win. So, they’re just coming back stronger every year,” senior Carolina Moraes Dutra said.

Senior Max Childs said there was a half-point gap between first and second place. 

“It was the closest that that gap had been in any time we’ve been in high school up to that point,” Childs said.

Winning the competition ended the seniors’ time with marching band on a high note.

“I found it really special to be able to perform with people that I’d known for two, three, four years at that point,” senior Max Childs said. “I thought that it was cool to be the people leading the program forward and pushing.”

He has seen the band and himself grow over the last four years. This year, he is a section leader and is in charge of mentoring underclassmen.

“I feel like this year, I was able to get a lot more of that experience with helping the freshmen and sophomores to develop and grow,” he said.

The rehearsal time spent with the band has been worth it, he said.

“I think you spend 15 to 20 hours a week with these people over the course of three months, so I think that a lot of the bond and just relationships are special ’cause you’re seeing people so often,” Childs said. “You kind of get to be vulnerable, if that makes sense. ‘Cause you just get to know people really well.”

Championships are not the most important part of marching band for freshman Aedan Bateman either, even though he believes the win was well deserved.

“My favorite part of the performance was working with these band members that I’ve grown such a strong bond with, and just having all that work pay off,” Bateman said.

Bateman faced a difficult choice between the football team and marching band. Ultimately, he decided to stay in the marching band as doing both would have been impossible because of practice schedules. 

“In football, there’s kind of more glory. Because it’s like you’re fighting together to win, whereas marching band kind of just do it. And then it’s not really about winning,” Bateman said.  “I think the true state championship is the friends you make along the way.”

Despite challenges, band members believe that it is worth staying in the marching band because of the friendships. 

“I feel like even if we were like one of the worst teams in Colorado, we’d probably still have a similar bond. Maybe less kids would be as committed. But I think we’d still have similar bonds with each other,” Bateman said.

Childs agrees that the bonds are important.

“It’s a really special opportunity that we have and we’re super gifted to have such great directors, and the opportunity to go and compete at such a high level. But I think that at the end of the day, this program’s special because of the community and not ’cause of what we’ve accomplished,” Childs said. “There’s definitely been moments where I have wanted to quit, but there’s a lot of community I find and I think that there’s just a lot of special things that you can’t find anywhere else in this school.”