Old Friends, New Memories

For a lot of people, lifelong friendships are made in the Marching Virginians. Whether it’s section bonding time or just striking up a conversation at the MVC, countless relationships begin with marching band. For some other people, these relationships start even earlier than college. A lot of our wonderful MVs came from high school band together, spending eight years doing what they love with the same people. We wanted to highlight these special relationships and commemorate all the years we have spent together making music.

Millbrook High School

Xander Hromiak ‘20, Hayden Gormas ‘21

Xander and Hayden both come from our lovely horn section here in the MVs. They hail from Winchester, VA, both a part of the Millbrook High School Marching Band. Their favorite memory from high school band is “the anticipation of the triple double crunchwrap supreme”.

Hickory High School

Gracie Maslyn '21, Thomas Chase '21, Cole Sawyer '20

Next we travel to Virginia Beach, where we meet Gracie Maslyn, Cole Sawyer, and Thomas Chase, all former members of the Hickory High School Marching Band. This band had a lot of fun with each other, with their favorite memories being going to Band of America Regionals at Liberty University, playing awesome games at band camp, and all the fun memories traveling with each other.

King George High School

Jacob Banerjee ‘19, Jonathan Amorino ‘22

Jacob and Jonathan, both members of the trombone section, have been marching together since their days at King George High School, in King George, VA. While their most memorable moment is the loss of their Senior Night football game, they have had many moments of fun with each other, especially since joining the Marching Virginians.

Grafton High School

Julia Darden ‘21 Jackson Kirsch ‘21, Ax Phan ‘20, Trey Kalil ‘20, Carrie Frecker ‘19, Calvin Moore ‘19, Jackson Davies ‘19, Tim Asher ‘19, Meadow Dawes ‘22

Next up is a gigantic and memorable group of Marching Virginians from Grafton High School, in Yorktown, VA. 9 of our MVs have been marching together for years, but not always successfully. Their favorite memory from HS was when Trey Kalil fell down in the middle of a competition, but got right back up and began marching in step on beat. It was so memorable that the video of the recording has lived long after all of them graduated.

Clarke County High School

John Kizer ‘20, Claire Holmes ‘19, Olivia Holmes ‘21, Charles Casey ‘21, Nico Ottobre ‘22, Nate Blackwell ‘22

All of these MVs hail from Clarke County High School, in Berryville, VA. They were all in the band together in 2018, and that year had a vampire themed show. One of Nate’s favorite memories that year was getting to march at championships with his arm in a brace because he broke my arm at band camp! He says “It was really cool to march with all of my friends even when I had to march with a concert horn!”

Charlottesville High School

Tommy Fruscello ‘22, Talia Moore ‘22, Claire Wildermann ‘22

Coming from a small high school, these three MVs from Charlottesville High School were very close before coming to Virginia Tech. According to them, Charlottesville High School’s band had bonds that superseded the section divide. All sections shared a lot of memories playing with each other through their tenure in band.

Pulaski County High School

Alex Haynes '22, Charlie “Kachow” Buchinsky '19

Coming closer to home, Alex and Charlie marched together at Pulaski County High School in Dublin, VA. They were able to share so many fun memories together, most notably traveling to All District and All State band.

Dominion High School

Isabel Hasson '19, Gillian Murphy '19, Alex Rutkowski '22, Myles Phillips '18, Aaron George '19, Kristin Rice '20, Samantha Frietchen '19

Lastly, we have an unforgettable group of MVs from Northern VA. The seven of them hail from Dominion High School, in Sterling VA. A fond memory they have from high school was getting to participate in Parade of Champions in 2017, as well as getting first place at a competition in 2018!!

These are just some of the bonds that were able to be strengthened through spending time in the MVs. It is so special to be able to know someone for upwards of eight years! The MVs is truly a place for lifelong friendships.

Meet the Blog Writing Team!

It’s been a long couple weeks of back-to-back home football games, so now that we have a small breather, we’re thrilled to introduce our Blog Writing Team for this season! Up until now, all posts were written and edited by our Marketing Communications Officers, Abbie Robertson and Andrew Stewart. Members of the Multimedia Team filled out applications and were selected by the Multimedia Officers based on their aptitudes for photography, graphic design, and for our Blog Writing Team, writing.

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Marketing Communications Officers

Abbie Robertson

Abbie is a sophomore at Virginia Tech from Roanoke, VA, and is double majoring in Mathematics Education and Psychology. This is her second year marching in the tenor sax section in the MVs and is one of the Marketing Communications Officers. After her first year, she knew she needed to put more time into the organization and community that truly made Virginia Tech home. Every band she was in - the Marching Virginians, Campus and Symphony Band, Pep Band - secured her passion for this school, the music department, and the people involved in the bands. Some of her other passions are using her red hair as her only personality trait, making a fool of herself, and recently she’s picked up her old hobby of reading again. She is incredibly excited for what this year has to offer!

Andrew Stewart

Andrew Stewart is a junior from Hillsboro, VA majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering, and minoring in Human-Computer Interactions. He is in his third year with the Marching Virginians, is serving as a baritone rank captain for his second year, and is a Marketing Communications Officer this year! Apart from The Marching Virginians, Andrew is a proud member of the Hokies Volleyball and Basketball Pep Bands, and is a brother of Kappa Kappa Psi. Outside of the band, Andrew enjoys lifting weights, stargazing, Britney Spears, and telling people about his tattoo. Andrew hopes to apply to the ISE graduate school program to study cognitive engineering or biomechanics. Andrew is very excited to serve the band in every way he can!

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Blog Writing Team

Julia Darden

Julia is a second year History major from Yorktown, Virginia. She focuses mainly on American and European History and wants to use her education to work in Museums. This is her second year in the Marching Virginians saxophone section and her second year on the multimedia team. Outside of MV’s she has participated in Campus Band and Symphony Band. Julia has played saxophone for nine years and she was Band President and Drum Major for the Grafton High School Marching band her junior and senior years of high school. Hobbies outside of band include reading an absurd amount of books, making bomb smoothies, and telling everyone around her that “they sang this on Glee”!

Emy Delaporte

Emy is a dual degree sophomore in technical writing and journalism with double minors in natural resources and conservation. This is her second season marching with and blogging for the Marching Virginians! She’s a proud member of the MVPix. Outside of the band, she’s an editor for the Silhouette magazine and blog and a staff writer for the Collegiate Times, as well as a member of the Bird Club, The Wildlife Society, the National Deer Association, and more. Emy likes to spend her free time birding, volunteering in CNRE’s Wildlife Habitat and Population Analysis lab, writing novels, camping, going on drives, and taking in the cold night air.

Sarah-Faith Mukuna

Sarah-Faith is a second year engineering major from Fairfax County, VA, with plans to declare Biological Systems Engineering on the Health Professions (specifically pre-med) track. She also minors in French. She is a proud member of Rank 69, the managers section! One of her biggest hobbies is writing, which is why she is so excited to serve the band on this team! Sarah-Faith also loves listening to music and playing her instruments; she just started playing the tenor sax! Outside of MVs, Sarah-Faith is the Treasurer of Tau Beta Sigma and a member of National Society of Black Engineers. In her free time, she loves reading books (90% chance it’s Percy Jackson), going to the gym, and cooking.

Emery Poulsen

Emery is a senior from Fairfax County, Virginia and is studying Environmental Data Science. This is her fourth and final year as a member of the Marching Virginians, where she serves the band as its Treasurer. She has loved her time in the baritone section, where she finds herself laughing constantly. Trying out for the MVs was the best decision Emery could have made coming into college, and she hopes to communicate that through her blog posts! She's excited to write for Marching with the Virginians for a fourth year. Outside of the Marching Virginians, Emery is involved in numerous other student organizations, including serving as the Treasurer for Kappa Kappa Psi, being a Programming Executive for the Big Event at Virginia Tech, practicing with the Virginia Tech Running Club, or playing in the Hokies Pep Band. In her occasional spare time, Emery loves running, hiking, and trying new foods.

Atlas Vernier

Atlas is a fifth-year student at Tech pursuing dual degrees in Industrial & Systems Engineering and French. This is their fifth year playing piccolo in the Marching Virginians, where they are the proud rank captain of Rank 7! They serve as a photographer and a writer for the MV Blog. Outside of marching band, Atlas is a researcher, focusing on immersive augmented/virtual reality experiences and autonomous collaborative robotics. They are also a translator and subtitler for multiple international broadcasts, as well as a post-production lead for a TV series set to be released in 2023. Atlas is so excited to be a part of the multimedia team, and they can't wait to share their experiences and stories!