The 2024 Marching band had a successful season, getting fourth place at their Olathe Marching Invitational Festival and then getting eighth place at Kansas Bandmaster Association (KBA) Marching Invitational Festival. 

At KBA during prelims, the band got 11th place, which qualified them to go to finals where they got eighth. It was the biggest jump made in Derby history. The drumline also placed amongst other schools’ drumlines and received sixth place overall.

Now with summer approaching, the band is getting ready for their 2025 season. 

Going into a new marching season requires a lot of preparation. 

First, emails are sent out in January to everyone eligible to participate in the marching band with a commitment form that helps the directors get the numbers on how many people will be in the program. 

Second, the directors take other musical selections to be the show music. Then DMS band director Ethan Wagoner arranges a show from those selections. 

Third, leadership applications are sent out to current freshman, sophomores and juniors to see who is going to be section leaders and drum majors. 

Fourth, they start drum major auditions. There were seven people who auditioned and four made it. 

In previous years, there’s been three drum majors who are seniors. This year, there are four drum majors; all juniors. Emmersyn Bonebrake, Sophia Rogers, Evie Stanfield and Sophie Segelke. 

“I think it’ll be important to get people to respect us,” Stanfield said. “We need people to see us as drum majors and not just juniors.” 

Other leadership roles are music tech and field tech. Each instrument section has at least one of each. 

The drumline has their captain, Noah DeVault. 

The final step is to start going to summer rehearsals and eventually band camp.

Every Tuesday the band meets at the high school to learn marching skills and the music. During band camp they start learning the marching drill and put the show together. 

“You work so hard so then the end product is beautiful. That’s why the stuff you do before is so important,” freshman Asher Turner said.