Rider band will compete in their final fall UIL marching contest at Memorial Stadium on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

“The Last Ride” is a unique, 15-minute show featuring 24 different songs and six different scenes that pay tribute to the school. 

Band director Loy Studer began working on the show over the summer and continued through the beginning of the school year in August. 

“I expect our kids to step up,” Studer said. “And we are doing a really good job. I expected that they would want to finish strong. They come back with some of their ideas and we kind of worked creatively to work on music and visual concepts and then they put it together over the summer and it’s ready to go in August.”

Despite it being put together set-by-set, Studer felt like there was still room for improvement within the show once the school year started. 

“Honestly, I just want us to give it our best stuff,” Studer said. “Just because it’s the last thing we get to do and it’s kind of our chance to say goodbye the way we want to say goodbye. Things have been more serious now. I think everybody’s kind of figuring out that it’s time.”

Drum majors Emily Spurgers and Savannah Skelton recognize the effort their band has made to get to the point they are at now, but also recognize the work still needed from the group to see the results they want.

“We’re still working and it’s still going to get better and better as long as we can go,” Spurgers said. 

Spurgers and Skelton have felt that having two drum majors this year has helped the band out overall, but especially with getting ready for the fall marching competition.

“I think it’s good to be able to split up the work and it’s good to be able to have somebody else that we can rely on since we’re both so new to this,” Spurgers said. “Because it’s a lot for one person to have. And I think having two drum majors that they [the band] know that they can rely on for anything.”

Even though it has been difficult trading off positions and getting used to the process, the two drum majors have felt it’s much easier for them to work together.

“We’re both besties and we can understand each other,” Skelton said. “I think it makes us really close already. So it makes it a lot easier to split everything up.”

Being drum majors for the last show has been special for the two, and both agree that they couldn’t have asked for more from this experience.

“I think it’s really cool,” Spurgers said. “It’s a very exciting opportunity. And, you know, it feels very final. It’s awesome to be able to be [a part] of the last year of Rider High School. It’s that history and the tradition that’s built up over the years.”