Texas Bands Prove Community Matters More Than Competition

The marching band community is a special one.

When Vandergrift High School faced an unthinkable setback on its way to the 2025 University Interscholastic League (UIL) State Marching Band Contest on November 3, its competitors stepped up to make sure the students got a chance to perform.

Traveling to the Alamodome in San Antonio for the competition, the tractor-trailer carrying Vandergrift’s equipment was struck by a moving train after the truck got stuck on its route. Both the driver and passenger exited the cab safely before the incident, but the force from the crash destroyed or damaged a significant amount of the band’s equipment.

No students from the Austin-based school were present during the incident, as they were bused separately on a different route.

In the wake of the incident, the UIL agreed to let Vandergrift perform later in the evening as the school scrambled to fill holes. While unloading the trailer, located about a mile away from the competition site, it was discovered three marimbas, four vibraphones, several microphones, timpani and some auxiliary percussion were damaged, among other pieces.

Word got out quickly among the other schools at the meet, and the response was equally fast.

At least seven programs from across Texas stepped up to help lend their equipment to help Vandergrift compete: Cedar Park, Flower Mound, Katy Seven Lakes, Keller Timber Creek, Leander, Lewisville, San Antonio Reagan and San Antonio Johnson high schools.

Cedar Park and Leander are in the same district as Vandergrift; Katy Seven Lakes is near Houston; Lewisville Flower Mound and Keller Timber Creek are in the Dallas–Fort Worth area; and Johnson and Reagan are in San Antonio.

Despite the circumstances, Vandergrift went on to finish third in prelims that night before following up with a bronze finish in the finals the next day in the 6A competition. Vandergrift has been among the best marching bands in the state the last few years, winning the 6A title in both 2022 and 2023.

Jarrett Lipman, director of bands at Vandergrift, told local media after the event it was humbling to see so many programs come to his students’ aid after they weren’t sure they’d be able to compete at all.

Ryan Sirna, director of bands at Leander, said he heard about the incident while practicing on the field. He said his program did a call-out to see who could help load Vandergrift’s gear into their trailer, and by the time he got to the site himself more than 20 students were already there.

“I think there’s a real strong emphasis on student leadership in band programs, especially in Texas,” Sirna said. “… The biggest thing is just having people willing to do the right thing when it comes down to it. I think what we did was nothing special as it pertains to what I would expect and think that anybody else around us would do for us.

“… That’s just the great thing about the activity down here and the people surrounding us, he continued. “So to me, I definitely don’t want any recognition or anything like that from anyone because I truly don’t think this is a unique thing that we did. It’s just we happened to be the first ones to pick up on it and help them out.”

Texans take marching band as seriously as they do their football programs.

While some compare the UIL state competition to March Madness, multiple band directors said they weren’t surprised how quickly programs jumped in to help Vandergrift.

“What I think is cool is that all the staff members are in it for the students, and we’re not thinking of competition first, because that’s not what we preach to our kids,” said Dan Shinohara, percussion director at Keller Timber Creek. “We are preaching you’ve got to be the best version of you. You have to be a better version of you from the previous day, from the previous rep, from the previous week. We’re preaching that with our kids, and it’s really a competition within themselves before it’s a competition against other people.”

Jordan Morey is manager of communications and media relations at the NFHS.