It’s 8 a.m. on a weekend, yet the campus is already filled with students from a variety of schools.

Colorful flags spin in the air and giant xylophones on wheels are pushed around by middle and high school students in vibrant uniforms.

The sound of drums echoes beyond the school as students rehearse in preparation for their final performance of the 2016 winter season.

This was the scene on March 26 when Cal hosted the Northern California Band  Association (NCBA) Championships for drumline, color guard, and drum majors. The full day event was packed with performances from as early as 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

A total of 87 schools–11 middle schools and 76 high schools–performed at Cal for the NCBA championships. There were 12 middle school and 36 high school color guard groups, and five middle school and 38 high school drumline groups.

There were about 200 drum major participants with some schools having around 30 students competing. Around 2,500 students participated in the championships and roughly 4,000 parents attended throughout the day.

Cal’s drumline won the Championship title, a position above first place, in the High School Scholastic Percussion division, the second highest of six divisions in drumline.

Cal’s drumline and color guard competed at the NCBA Championships making this color guard’s 10th and drumline’s sixth performances. Cal’s color guard placed second in the High School Open Guard division, the highest of five divisions in color guard.

The whole event was organized by Cal  band director, Kent Johnson, who is also in charge of the school’s marching band as well as drumline.

Johnson said he applied in 2013 for Cal to serve as host school for the compeition.

“They come and do a host visit to review the site and see if we can handle parking and to see if we can handle as many groups as we had,” Johnson said. “If you’re selected, then you have to get it on your calendar two years in advance. I found out in the beginning of 2014 and that’s when I requested the site.”

Both student and parent volunteers worked to keep the event running throughout the day.

“All the students from the instrumental music program helped,” Johnson said. “The parents helped and some of my friends helped as well. A couple people from the NHS club came and helped too, which was nice.”

While a home competition made for stressful planning for Cal students performing that day, it was an enjoyable experience.

“The best part about competitions is performing, being able to be a team, and really getting a chance to show what we’ve worked so hard for,” said junior Mary Mello, an experienced member of the color guard team. “This competition we had a drop-less show, which was really exciting because that never happens and it was a huge deal because that’s something that we work really hard for.”

Competitions are held almost every Saturday in the latter half of the roughly four month long drumline and color guard season.

Each competition day, drumline members must load all of their equipment into two trailers in the morning, unload at the competition site, load again after their performance, and then unload again at Cal, so that the instruments can be used for band classes and practice.

“The worst part about competitions is probably loading the trailers and other things like cleaning up and stuff like that,” said senior Anthony Soeherman, section leader of the drum portion of drumline.

Soeherman played snare this season and has participated in drumline for all four years of high school.

“It’s really miniscule stuff though,” Soeherman said. “Competition days are really fun. The best parts are just performing in front of all the crowds and other drumline members and other drumlines from other schools. It’s really fun to just do it.”

At a home competition, though, there was no loading or unloading that needed to be done.

“Everything was here for us,” Soeherman said about the championships. “We had a lot of free reign and knew where everything was and it was cool. It was like home.”

Fellow senior and section leader Sarah Culbertson shared a similar sentiment about competition days.

“The worst part about competitions is that it’s really stressful and there’s a lot going on, but the best part is being able to perform in front of an audience,” Culbertson said. “This championship was memorable in that it was at home and was my very last championship.”

Culbertson was a section leader for two years and also participated in drumline for four years.

Cal is planning on hosting the marching band competition next school year on November 5. But when asked whether Cal would host another drumline competition, Johnson replied with a laugh, and said, “Probably not. No. It was too much work.”