The first thing you hear about when your child starts marching is Pigskin. This is the high school band marching competition held every year in mid October for all high schools from Alamo to Roma.

The competition, known as Pigskin Jubilee, is held at either our McAllen Memorial Stadium or the La Joya ISD Stadium. It is the focal point of the fall season for every high school band in the area. All over the state of Texas, high school bands are preparing to participate in their own Pigskin Jubilee or equivalent marching contest.Every other year, bands that receive a Superior Rating at Pigskin advance to the Area G UIL Marching Contest.

Because of the need for constant practice to prepare for Pigskin, the band usually performs much of the same halftime show every week. Halftime shows inspire school spirit and are dress rehearsals for the big competition.The Pigskin performance is generally divided into three or four parts. When teaching the show to the students, Mr. Egger builds on to it a piece at a time. Every few weeks he will add a new segment to the show.
When you see kids practicing their show, you will notice a few things.

The first is that not all students march with the same instrument that they play during concert season.The tuba players use a sousaphone.The French Horn players march with mellophones and the baritone players often march with a marching baritone, which looks like an overgrown trumpet.Most marching bands also do not march with the double reed instruments – oboes and bassoons. These students usually march with another instrument during the show and pretend like they are playing.Another option for these students is to join the color guard.

The second item that may seem strange on first glance is that not everybody marches. There are many reasons for this:

Mr. Egger and his staff must be prepared for the state-mandated NO PASS, NO PLAY rule. The NO PASS, NO PLAY rule says that students cannot march if they have failed a class – any class. As a result, the pigskin show will have fewer students than the band enrollment.

• Inexperience – the band uses the most experienced marchers and players on the field. The most inexperienced marchers are naturally the freshmen.
• Ability- the closer that the band gets to Pigskin, we use the best marchers and players that we have. Those students who march and play the best should be the ones that march the most. The upperclassmen in most cases should march and play better than the freshmen. Freshmen should take heart and realize that as long as they are trying, they should improve at both marching and playing and be a regular that much sooner.
• Dependability – Those students who have unexcused absences and tardies will often be replaced by alternates who are more dependable. These unexcused absences will affect the student’s band grade. Anytime a student is absent from any practice for any reason, they can lose their position.
• Attitude – Students with a good attitude that practice correctly, march well, and can play their parts have a good chance of earning a marching spot.

Mr. Egger tells us that upper classmen have an advantage over most freshmen for marching spots because of their playing and marching experience. However, the band staff tries to make sure that everyone has a chance to march on the field at some point during the season. Mr. Egger has a goal that every student appears on the field by the second or third game..

One last word about Pigskin Competition. There are so many schools in the state competing for marching competition honors, only half of the areas are eligible to go to regional competition during a given year. As a result, 5A schools from South Texas only go to regional competition every other year. The 2010-2011 school year is a state competition year for McHi band. During a state competition year, if the band earns a first division rating at the Pigskin competition, the band will advance to the next level of competition, Area G Marching Contest.If the band places high enough at this competition, the band then advances to the UIL State Marching Contest.