On Nov 15, 2025, the James Campbell Saber Marching Band (SMB) participated in their final competition at the Mililani Trojan Bandfest, finishing off the 2025 season. Bands across Hawaii are judged based on how well they do at portraying emotion and direction that each respective director(s) wanted to present to the audience. The bands are rated based on a four scoring system in order from Fair, Good, Excellent, to Superior. For their final show at Mililani, the SMB won the highest possible competing score, with a rating of “Superior”. 
Movement 1, “Yellow” impact. Credit to Band1 on YouTubeThe Saber Marching Band consists of 73 wind instrument, 20 percussionists, and 21 color guard, led by Drum Majors Bryce Casarez, Dean Sison, and Reese Padayhag. The band has been putting together their show titled, “Prism” since late-June, collecting countless hours of practice and rehearsals to culminate into each and every one of their competitions. Their show consisted of four movements: Red, Yellow, Blue, and finally Prism. Their first performance was an exhibition at Moanalua, the Mene Classic. Schools weren’t given ratings, but it did set the tone for future performances and gave both the audience and marchers a look into how competitive this season would be and what it meant for those on the field.
Jumping from their first performance in late October to the Trojan Bandfest, the Saber Marching Band have performed six times in under two months, one even being at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, showing just how resilient the band has been. In addition to their non-stop performances, the SMB played at the Lotte Championship in late September, the only high school band that was invited to perform, playing several local songs and a few football tags – showing how much work the students put in to the show.
Band director Scott Pierre said, “This season was a very fun experience. (And) it took a lot of work and heavy collaboration from our drill writers, staff, and techs. It was stressful, but it always pays off to be able to work on these things, and it was probably one of our smoothest years.”
From his perspective, the season had a lot of moving parts whether it came from design or just trying to get everyone to work cohesively on the field and the constant adaptations and new additions to their show mid-season which were several. The band was performing at such a high level compared to other years which caused a bit of stress because the show had to be advanced enough to keep up the level at which the students were playing (as stressful as it was, it was still quite appreciated by the directors).
In contrast to years prior, students had the most input to give about the show, both positive and negative, which provided the directors an opportunity to understand what worked and what could’ve been better. By doing so, that’s what was able to lead to the most complex yet unified show the Sabers had marched in a very long time.
Last year, the Sabers’ marched their show “Dusk Descends” which ended with a very large and loud impact, but that isn’t always the goal of a marching band, as much as audiences might wish it were. Dusk Descends was not as complex as the message of Prism. The directors wanted this new show to have loud and explosive impacts of sound while also balancing it with music that could be left to interpretation by the audience. The show was meant to deliver the feeling of synesthesia (ex. hearing colors and seeing sounds), explaining why Prism emphasizes the three primary colors. Yellow sent out a bright, full tone, while the next movement Blue delivered a slower, more thoughtful tone. Then again, however, these are all up to interpretation.
All the thought and effort that each person, marcher or staff, put into the show delivered a powerful theme to the audience. Every show could just be loud noises and manic movements, which admittedly some people might be content with, but instead every person on the field marched with a purpose to hopefully tell at least one person in the audience a message that will stick with them.
While winning accolades from judges mean a lot to the Sabers who march, that’s not their goal. Even if the Sabers lost every single competition (which is highly unlikely), if they were able to affect just one person in the crowd, then that means more to them than anything else.
