Seniors on the 2025 Marching Band Season

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The FHS Marching Band finished their 2025 season stronger than ever, slowly returning to its “pre-COVID” levels. 

The Marching Band Seniors (pictured above) during their Senior Lunch.

Made up of 106 members, the group performed at 8 football games and competed in their own competitions in October, ranging from Hillsborough HS to MetLife Stadium. Although they didn't win 1st this season, the band's final score of 84.3 is a testament to their efforts. They also won the caption award for “Best Color Guard” three times in a row. And the fans couldn’t deny that their performance this year, “Empire City,” was anything less than spectacular!

To reflect on their season, I interviewed Shane Casamalhuapa (Drum Major), Abigail Balda (Guard Captain), and Hamid Abu (Flute Player), all seniors who’ve been in the band for all 4 years at FHS.

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Q1. Why did you stay in the Marching Band for all 4 years?

Shane C.: I stayed because of my friends; I’ve made a lot of friends in the Marching Band, met a lot of really nice people & had a nice relationship with them.

Abby B.: I stayed because I found a really nice community within the marching band, especially within the color guard, and I just wanted to keep on personally getting better at…y’know, swinging flags and weapons and stuff.

Hamid A.: At first, I didn’t want to do it, and then after my 1st football game, I realized it was really fun, so I decided to keep going.

Q2. How do you think the band has improved since you joined / since the season started

Shane C.: I would say the people and the numbers, including getting more and more people to join the band, really helped us. I would say the color guard teacher, having her come, really helped us revamp the color guard. A lot of great players came and really improved our band in general.

Abby B.: I can only speak for the guard, but I think the guard became a lot more disciplined with our new coach, and she just was a lot more…I guess hardcore, and everyone started to focus and want to be better because we realized we could actually get awards.

Hamid A.: I think we’ve improved because each year the band gets bigger, and when the band’s bigger, there’s more instruments, and we also get more staff members because of the bigger group, so that really helps.

The entire FHS Marching Band (pictured above), in the stands during a football game.

Q3. How do you think the band performed this season?

Shane C.: I would say 2nd place at Metlife was, I would say, better than last year getting first because we were going against so many other schools [9 schools this year to last year's 4], and we weren’t even that far off from 1st place. It was a good score, really, to be proud of. And last year, our 1st comp we got a 70-something, so the only real highlight was getting 1st at Metlife. So, I would argue that getting Best Colorguard 3 times in a row & getting 2nd place at pretty much all our comps was a really big achievement.

Q4. What do you hope the band will do in the future?

Shane C.: Hopefully, we'll set up the band next year to do even better.

Abby B.: I really hope the guard continues to get Best Guard, and stuff like that. I hope that the band continues to get awards, and I just hope they keep on treating each other like a family.

Hamid A.: First of all, I hope they keep trying. Not saying that OUR class is the only one that tries, but I hope they keep trying, and hopefully they can win States [the State level Marching Band competition] because last year we did not get 1st at States, but hopefully they would get 1st at States if they do go.