Helias Marching Band Update By Joe Schneider   For this article, interviewed were Mr. Eric Veile, the Helias Music Department director, and music students. When asked about how the band is doing this year, Viele said, “They’re doing really well so far; they’re further along than they were at this point than last year, and the show is looking pretty good.” The Helias Marching Band consists of thirty-nine students in total, with nine freshmen. For their halftime show they are playing music on video games:  “Halo,” “Kingdom Hearts,” and “Civilization IV”. When interviewing junior Justin Balk, an assistant drum major, he said that being a drum major was pretty exciting: “It’s really interesting getting to work with people and how people respond to it. It’s a real privilege.”  Also, he said the freshman are doing, “excellent and may school some upper classmen (with a laugh) they are wonderful and catch on really fast.” Also interviewed was freshman Sarah Hickman. Sarah is the younger sister of Megan Hickman, 2008 graduate of Helias and former drum major. Sarah said that she wanted to follow in her sister’s footsteps and become a drum major. When asked about the band’s recent schedule change, (as some people know, instead of having a morning class the band was given an “eighth hour” after school, during which they practice for competitions), and how Sarah juggles school and band, all she had to say was, “Late nights!” Many freshmen seem to like the new eighth hour. Some think it is better because they don’t have to get up as early. An equal amount of people disagree. One student doesn’t care for it at all and liked the early hours of practice simply because he had gotten used to the old system after so many years. All in all I enjoyed writing this article.  As a member of the Helias Concert Choir, music is very important to me.  I would like to end this article by thanking Mr. Veile, Justin Balk, Sarah Hickman, and all who helped.