The Mineola Mustang Marching Band is the best in the state.
The team took home the state championship in the small school division late last month with the highest score ever recorded – not just the school’s history, but in the history of the entire division. The victory is the team’s fifth in seven years, cementing their place as one of the best bands in New York.
“It’s been a really special year from day one until the end. They really just took ownership of the show,” said Marching Band Director Kenneth Kamping of his team. “They loved it from day one, and it was just so much fun watching them grow and progress throughout the year. It’s very much ‘us versus us,’ and just showing up every day, trying to be better than the day before.”
The credit, he said, goes to the band’s roughly two dozen student section leaders and drum majors, who organize additional rehearsals, team-building exercises and help keep the 123-member band motivated throughout the season.
“They’re constantly pushing each other to get better,” Kamping said. “Really that’s what we rely on, the kids pushing each other. They all just feed off of that, and it just keeps getting better.”
Head Drum Major Mary Elias and Section Leader Gabriella Buonastina, both seniors who have played in the band since eighth grade, said the win was incredibly meaningful for them and the perfect way to cap off their final season.
“We love to say that it’s not about the scores and not about winning, but it definitely is a big motivation for us,” Elias said. “I feel like if we didn’t have this aspect of competition, these long nights and taxing rehearsals wouldn’t mean as much. Winning is motivation to do even better the following season.”
The band practices an average of eight to 14 hours a week, meeting as a full group and also in smaller, instrument-specific “sectional” groups. During their fall competition season, the band also competes most weekends.
“Our motivation comes from the want to be good,” Buonastina said. “Once you get good at your instrument and really start practicing, that’s when it becomes fun. The fun part really is the practicing, so you can be good and have more fun.”
This year the band’s routine was inspired by music from “The Maze Runner,” a dystopian YA novel and movie series, which centers on a group of teenagers who must find their way out of a constantly changing maze in a future world suffering the aftereffects of a catastrophic solar flare.
Kamping, who has worked with the marching band for years, said the idea came out of nowhere after hours of work with the band’s design team last winter.
“At the end of a two-hour design meeting, we had nothing. I was like, ‘We’re not leaving this meeting without something,’” he said with a laugh. “ I had the idea a few years ago of doing a labyrinth-type show, but could never piece it together in a way that I liked. I didn’t want to do Greek mythology. I wanted something new to it. In the meeting, I thought, ‘What if we take this and we put a more futuristic spin on it, sort of like ‘The Maze Runner’ or ‘Tron’ and sort of mixing those together, and we liked the idea.’”
The idea clearly worked, and was met with enthusiasm from the students.
“It was mainly focused on the winds being trapped in the maze, and the color guard percussion being the ones trapping them,” Elias said, describing the routine. “Then throughout part two and part three of the show…you see the winds breaking out and reversing those roles.”
Elias and Buonastina said this season will be one they remember for the rest of their lives, not just because of the win, but because of the life lessons they learned being a part of the group for so many years.
“You look at photos from five years ago and like, you’re like, ‘Wow. I’m happy I did this,’” Buonastina said. “It’s truly special, what the marching band has built and the community it brings. Honestly, it’s beautiful to watch, because it’s really not just about the band, it’s about everything. It’s a team activity.”
“People don’t build that up overnight,” she continued. “It takes work and effort to understand what it means to be part of a team…It teaches you discipline. That’s the best skill it gives you, team building and discipline.”
Elias emphasized the benefits of being a part of the marching band and the values she’s leaving the group with.
“It’s such a team-building thing,” Elias said. “It truly teaches you things that you will carry on the entire rest of your life. I would have never been this confident or have this leadership capability if I wasn’t given these opportunities through the marching band. It’s truly remarkable. I’m such a different person than I was when I joined this activity.”
“I’ve basically grown up in the marching band,” Elias added. “I joined when I was 12 and I just turned 17…It’s just so monumental that we got to break so many records and do this well because of all the effort that we put in. It’s really just an amazing way to close this chapter of my life.”
The Mineola Marching Band will begin preparing for its 2026-27 season this spring.
