Marching Band in many ways helps distract students while also having fun.

A marching band is not just a concert band that runs around the football field, it’s more than that.

It allows students to merge arts together with music, dance, and physical activity. This year’s Ben Davis marching band theme is called “Puzzled.”

“This idea was brought to life with the idea of solving puzzles throughout the show. Puzzles like sudoku, crossword, wordsearch, and connect 4,” director Patrick Van Arsdale said. “This is all with the creativity combined of a designer who gives out a variety of ideas to choose from and we help flush those ideas out. We take it and run with it and do our own twist.”

The band started the competition season with a first place finish at Lawrence Central followed by a second place at Avon. Here is there remaining competition schedule:

Oct 18 – ISSMA Regionals – at Lafayette Jeff, 4:45 p.m.

Oct 24 – BOA Indy – 12:15 p.m. (Lucas Oil Stadium)

Oct 25 – BOA finals if we advance

Nov 1 – ISSMA Semi State if we advance (at Ben Davis)

Nov 8 – ISSMA State Finals if we advance (Lucas Oil Stadium)

Nov 10 – Marching Band Awards Night

Overall, music is what brings everything together. This year the band is using music from Radiohead. The song starting the show is “Jigsaw Falling into Place” and the ending song is  “Everything in its Right Place.”

 Our goal is to be the best possible, but our tangible goal is to make it to state finals and enjoy the experience,” Van Arsdale said..

If this year’s marching band makes it to state finals the season will be ending on November 8. Van Arsdale is looking forward to seeing the rest of the show come together, tie together and seeing the final product.

That’s not puzzling.