A&M-Commerce hosts NETEX Marching Invitational

Texas A&M University-Commerce hosted this year's North East Texas Marching Invitational in Memorial Stadium on Oct. 3. Marching bands from 18 different 2A and 3A high schools competed for top rankings, and got the opportunity to see the A&M-Commerce Pride Marching Band perform this year's show.

Friends and family members of the band students came out to support their marching bands and some A&M-Commerce students came out to share a nostalgic moment as they remember their own days of high school marching band.

"I wanted to come out because I was in band in high school," Casey Beck said. "My high school went to a competition on Saturday, but I wasn't able to go see them, but I'm glad I can see this one. But I will say, I find it funny when I see bands with extra spaces in the formations because someone didn't make the grades."

Many of the high school students who came to compete also got a chance to watch the other schools perform and see how their show compared to the next.

"I like to perform," Farmersville High School percussionist Alex Taylor said. "I only got to hear Commerce, but they were [really good]. I think we did really well. We just recently learned all of our show. But we definitely still need new heads."

Director of the Pride Marching Band Scott Atchison was pleased with this being the band's first exhibition performance, and believes that these competitions are a great recruiting tool.

"I thought it was a good exhibition for us," Atchison said. "We really like playing at those things because it's the most powerful recruiting we can do for the university, because all those kids are people that will potentially come to school here. They see us and we're big and we're loud and we're exciting – I hope we're exciting – so it's a good tool to use."

While in the stands, Atchison was able to watch some of the high school shows, and while he believes some schools did well, he thinks others could still use some work.