The Marching Owls have been hard at work since May, marking the start of their season of competitions and performances.
The 2026 Marching Owls met for the first two times on May 27 and 28 for pre-summer camp. Those two days, they focused on learning marching basics and the four songs football games know by heart: Patriotic Salute, The Star-Spangled Banner, the Fight Song, and the Alma Mater. Head Band Director Carol Lowman spoke about why it’s so important for the band to start as soon as possible.
“We like to loop in our new freshmen and get them connected before the summer, um, and so that’s part of also why we have our pre-summer band camp at the end of May or early June and it gives those students connected then and it helps us with summer retention and for quality performance in the fall,” Lowman said.
The Marching Band had a summer full of sectionals with their section leaders to get ahead of the music before meeting back on July 22 for full band camp. Summer marching band camp started on July 21, with percussion and student leaders preparing for camp. Front Ensemble Section Leader Ann’adele Kozlowski explained how everything they do before full camp helps them.
“Being prepared for band camp, we walked in knowing our warmups and that made it go a lot faster,” Kozlowski said.
The whole marching band then started two weeks of camp, July 22 through July 25, and July 28 through August 1. They got everything ready for their first football game with pre-game, and then started everything regarding their 2026 Show, Beacon of Light. Their first performance was on the night of August 1 and the band showed their parents everything they learned during camp.
Now that school has started, the band continues rehearsals. They’re outside Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 a.m., all the way through 1st hour, working on their show. They will be at all the home football games, the Old Settlers Parade, and their competitions. They start with the Shawnee Mission North Invitational on Sept. 27, followed by the Olathe Marching Invitational on Oct. 11, the Kansas Band Masters Open Class Championships on Oct. 18, and the Newollah Marching Festival and Grand Parade on Oct. 25.
“Every group and every season and every show will only exist like one time. So we only have this group, we’ve got 96 plus 14 dance in the marching band this year, and it’s a unique group of kids. We’ll have different kids next year, we had different kids last year, and this is the show we are doing this year, and so this season it kind of has a life span and has a growth cycle and when it’s done, it’s done, we have to enjoy every part of it,” Lowman said.
