Randy Griner

The Freshman Four together at Gupton Stadium with their UIL medals. Seniors Trey Thompson, Randy Griner, Harris Garner and Aidan Gonzales have been on the school’s snare line since 2020 and will now be graduating this year. “My favorite moment was this year after the state finals which is our final performance of marching season,” Thompson said. “It was a very emotional performance, I was sobbing going off the field, I remember the last note and putting my sticks down, the crowd was cheering. The last thirty seconds of the show I was like oh this is it, my last thirty seconds of marching band.” Photo Courtesy of Randy Griner

The players, cheerleaders and Celebrities are off of the field, opening up the space for the band. The crowd silences and it is not only all eyes on them, but all ears too. The band makes way for the snare line, who are now the center of attention. 

Seniors Trey Thompson, Aidan Gonzales, Harris Garner and Randy Griner have been the high school’s snare line sensation since they were just freshmen. The snare line is the center of tempo in the ensemble and an important part  in the drum line. 

“Another unique part about snare line is that it’s kind of like the quarterback of the drum line, it kind of trickles down from us,” Thompson said. “We all set the tone and the example, so if we’re not working very hard, then the younger students won’t work as hard, so we always have to be on our A-game. We have to be ready to be watched.”

Enrolling in band means you are enrolling for marching band and concert band. Marching season begins in the fall where the band performs at halftime for the football game and the concert season takes place in the second semester. As of fall 2023, the band is the state champion in the 5a division for the 5th year in a row.

“There’s not a lot of things you can do where it’s so dependent on every single person,” Garner said. “It’s one hundred sixty people all working perfectly in synchronization, all putting their absolute souls into it for the whole season and then getting that final award together is just, it’s It.”

Since the year 2020, when they were in eighth grade, these four have been working together to achieve their goals. More than that, they have been close friends.

“The experience has been really cool,” Gonzales said. “Coming out of elementary school and going into middle school, I knew I was going to be in band but I didn’t know if I would have any friends because it’s a whole new world.” “These were kind of like built in friends, it was really easy to get to know them and just have fun and from then on we just grew together.”

Not even COVID could not stop these four, and during the pandemic they found ways to still put in work. This consisted of drumming at home, sending in and swapping videos of their drumming with one another, and when the quarantine mandate lifted, they were practicing six feet apart with their drums outside. Additionally, they would have a full school day on zoom followed by five to eight rehearsals at the school on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

“I think we were all just really passionate about the drumline and were all just really excited about the high school band,” Thompson said. ”I think also we learned a lot of lessons from [COVID], even though it was COVID drumline, we still did a lot of rehearsals. That definitely helped going into the next year because the next year we had a really strong drumline. Everyone had the music for two years at that point because our 2021 show was going to be our 2020 show. It was kind of just a longer preparation into the real deal.” 

In addition to being the first ever four freshmen on the snare line, during their freshman year, the drumline got first in Lonestar, which is a drumline only competition in Texas, and the most creative show award. Their sophomore year, they won the Dripping Springs Competition and won Snare Caption, best snare line award, their sophomore and senior year. 

“If you want to give a representation of how hard it is, there’s numbers you can give,” Garner said. We’re out there for twelve hours a day in the heat and it eats into a month of your summer,”. “This just goes to show the grasp this activity has on the members who enjoy it. It’s so worth it at the end that you do it your freshman year and you just think it’s the worst and then the season’s over and you miss it. It’s hard the first time but you just have to get through it and blindly trust it because once you get there you dive all in.”

Even with a talent-packed lineup like this one, their road to success wasn’t always a smooth one. Drumline captain Thompson said he struggled with leading a group comprised of his close friends. Nonetheless, they did not let this affect their bond.

 “It was never in spite of each other, it was more of encouraging each other, so in a way I don’t want to be the least talented one of the group so we all tried to up our game,” Griner said. “We all have massive respect for each other to where we would not let anything affect our feelings and attitude towards each other. So if I was mad at Trey for giving me a comment or suggestion and I took it the wrong way, it’s sort of like when you’re in an argument with your family the next day you just kind of forget about it, there’s no reason to keep harping on it.”

While they had been used to the snare line being just the four of them, they had a new member join them this year. His name is Chris Lo and he was a freshman working with just the four seniors. 

“I don’t think any of us could’ve asked for any more out of him during marching season, he was such a hard worker,” Thompson said. “Being on snare as a freshman is one thing, but also being on snare as a freshman with only four seniors that are known for what they do is definitely a lot of pressure. I feel confident leaving the drumline behind in his hands.”

As they move on from high school, they will all be entering college in the fall. Thompson and Garner will be at UNT, Thompson studying music education and Garner studying music composition. Griner and Gonzales will be at UT Austin, Griner in music education, and Gonzales in computer engineering. But you can say your final goodbye at their last performance in the band hall on Sunday, May 19th at 7 p.m. in the band hall. 

“I learned how to work as a team [on snare], this is very much a team dependent sport,” Griner said. “You have to rely on everyone but before that you have to rely on yourself to make sure you’re putting in the work. You can’t have the group do work for you, you have to do work to be a part of the group.”