Published: June 11, 2007 10:18 pm         

Lancers get set

First competition is Saturday in Waconia

NORTH MANKATO — This week Brianna Pischke is joining a long-standing tradition of extracurricular excellence in the Mankato area.

The East Junior High eighth-grader is becoming a member of the Mankato Area 77 Lancers Marching Band, which has ranked fourth-place or higher among Minnesota high school marching bands since 1992.

“I’m very nervous about the music, but it’s coming,” said the rookie clarinet player. “But, I feel very comfortable with everybody here.”

Pischke and the rest of the Lancers — made up of eighth- through 12th-grade students from Mankato East, West and Loyola high schools — are beginning practice this week at Dakota Meadows Middle School with marathon full-day sessions stretching from about 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For those nearly 12 hours, students are busy bonding, attending meetings, practicing marching, flag tossing and playing music.

The squad’s first performance will be in North Mankato on Friday and their first competition is already scheduled for Saturday in Waconia. Before the season ends July 22, the Lancers will compete or perform about 20 times, mostly during parades.

There are about 100 students on the squad this year, down from the 130 participants last year. Out of the 100, about 25 are rookies such as Pischke, which is a relatively high number compared to past years.

Regardless of the new members, Lancers Director Tedd Gullickson believes this new group of students show a lot of promise and should be able to retain their respectable ranking.

Gullickson is even more enthusiastic about the “West Side Story” musical theme this year.

“It’s a great musical,” he said. “We’ve had requests for many years.”

On Sunday night Paul Blaschko, president of the student band and captain of the drumline, gathered all of the band members for a massive screening of the “West Side Story” movie.

Those who were new to the film enjoyed the music, he said. Blaschko also believes the classic tunes will sit well with audience members during competitions.

And his prediction for the season?

“(We’ll provide) the excellence you would expect.”