Connecting the Dots: Marching Kangs Build Skills for the Field and the Future

The LWHS Marching Kangs’ fourth halftime performance—a tribute to Star Wars—reflects a season of learning how to move and make music together. In their second season following the band’s return after a 40-year absence, students are developing skills that support more ambitious shows, college participation, and life beyond the field.

This season, students learned the dot system: each marcher has an assigned position for every formation, located using yard lines and other field markings. Students learn their coordinates, follow a route, and adjust their step length to arrive on the correct musical count. This approach combines individual accuracy with awareness of the surrounding formation, said Caleb Henchman, who, thanks to funding from LWHS Band + Jazz Boosters, served as the LWHS guest marching coach and designed the halftime formations for the band.

Students also practiced glide step, rolling smoothly from heel to toe to reduce upper-body bounce while playing. As these fundamentals become more consistent, they provide a foundation for adding more intricate formations and transitions. Every student has a part in making the larger picture work.

Rehearsal also creates opportunities to practice problem-solving, collaboration, accountability, and adaptability. Students interpret instructions, check their progress, respond to feedback, and coordinate their actions with others. Research shows that marching band provides students with real-time experience in problem-solving, collaboration under pressure, accountability, and leadership.

These durable skills remain relevant as artificial intelligence changes work. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 finds that employers value analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, and leadership alongside rising demand for AI skills. Marching band offers a practical setting to exercise those human abilities: preparing, making judgments, adjusting, and contributing to a shared performance.

These skills connect directly to college marching expectations. Purdue University’s “All-American” Marching Band teaches glide step, adjusted step sizes, and formation alignment. Its performance rubric evaluates whether students arrive at the correct place at the correct time and maintain accurate spacing. Although college marching styles vary, the fundamentals our students are practicing overlap with those taught and assessed at Purdue.

Continuing in college band can also offer a community beyond the classroom. Purdue reports that its members represent nearly every major on campus.

Ryder Huston, LW'26, is a commercial aviation major at the University of North Dakota and is marching with the school’s Pride of the North Marching Band. The band is 40% aviation majors and similarly welcomes students across academic fields and describes band as a way to establish friendships and support before classes begin. Learning marching fundamentals gives students relevant preparation to explore these opportunities.

Daniel Cornette, LW'26, marched this season with the Washington State University’s Cougar Marching Band. The WSU marching band performs a different halftime show at every home game and generally requires students to memorize music and drill for performances with more than a week of preparation. Learning formations, coordinating movement with music, and remembering sequences at LWHS gives students relevant preparation for those demands.

At the University of Washington, students learn the Husky Band’s traditional chair-step and toe-point style. The footwork differs from the glide step our students practiced, but their experience learning marching sequences and performing together gives them a foundation to build on. Both UW and WSU welcome students from a wide range of majors, allowing them to continue making music while pursuing other academic interests.

Sources

• Purdue University: “All-American” Marching Band Handbook, August 2026—page 4: academic majors; page 23: performance rubric; pages 25–28: marching techniques.
• Kennesaw State University: Marching Handbook—“Part 2: The Ensemble” explains coordinates, pathways, step size, and alignment.
• University of North Dakota: Pride of the North FAQ—participation across majors and support for students entering college.
• Cobb County School District: “Marching Band: Building Lifelong Skills,” October 2, 2024—an educator’s explanation of marching band’s broader learning opportunities.
• World Economic Forum: The Future of Jobs Report 2025—employer survey findings on human and technological skills.