In October 2020, 19 students from Westside High School were admitted to the 2020 All-State Band, Orchestra and Jazz Band. There is a very extensive process which is required to get into All-State, and very few students are admitted. Band Director Thomas Krueger said that the audition requires extensive practicing.

“[Students] put in a lot of effort [for their auditions],” Krueger said, “[Practicing] takes a lot of intrinsic motivation. We specifically work with them on the audition if they come in for it. It’s a lot of at-home practice; they practice for the audition and play for themselves.”

According to Krueger, the 2020 year had a large amount of students  accepted into All-State.

“We always have a great turnout [for All-State],” Krueger said. “It’s hard to know if we did well because it’s not, like, you can go play defense against another school’s auditionees, so it’s all dependent on how they do. You could practice for hours on end going into the audition, yet the one time that it matters you play poorly.”

Although COVID-19 has made an impact on the process for auditions into All-State, Krueger said there were also some similarities to previous years. 

“The auditions have been online and in this fashion for the last five years now, so that wasn’t any different,” Krueger said. “The experience for the students will be a little bit different since it’s not in person because it’s mostly online, but other than that not much will change.”

Sophomore Mikayla Manna, a student in All-State, also felt the same way about the impacts of COVID-19 on the event. 

“I did wonder [about] whether or not it would be harder or easier to make it,” Manna said. “Would more people try out because they had extra free time or would they not try out because the event wasn’t in-person?”

The impacts of COVID-19 were not the only stressor for students during All-State auditions. As always, practice was important and choosing between success and mental health was a choice students auditioning  had to make.

“It does take a lot of effort to make it into All-State, but I would never practice to the point where it hurts the rest of my life. It’s just not worth it to me,” Manna said. “I usually doubt myself after I turn in [my performance]. What if I had practiced more, or had been less nervous doing the audition? But in reality, I did the best I could for where I was at, and I think that is something to be proud of.“