One of the most exciting events of the year for young musicians at Eagle High is the Battle of the Bands. Battle of the Bands is an annual competition between students who are ready to be represented and share their talents with the school.  

This year, the event took place on March 27 at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium at Eagle High. It took a lot of preparation, especially for contestants.  

First year Battle of the Bands competitor, sophomore Katelyn Probst, is a member of the band, Junkyard Roses. Probst plays the electric guitar for her band and is an example of a student who took precautions and was prepared for the performance. 

“We practice[d] a few times a month [and] as a band for a couple hours,” Probst said.  “[Practicing comes with] definitely lots of trial and error; sometimes we have to figure out how to modify the songs to make it easier.” This fierce competition between bands requires time and commitment to prepare for. 

Fast forward to the day of the competition, the Battle of the Bands judging and awards process is simple, yet complicated.  

Contestants can play to win two awards: the judge’s choice award and the audience choice award. The judge’s choice award is presented to bands with the highest score from judges. The audience choice award is presented to the winners as a popular vote by the audience. With these awards come gold and silver painted vinyl records for the winners to keep. 

This year, a band named The Incredible Melting Men won the judges award, which gave them the gold record, and a band named Crutch received the audience award, which gave them the silver vinyl record.  

First time Battle of the Bands competitor and winner, sophomore Israel Rubio, is part of Crutch as a backup guitarist and a lead vocalist. His advice to future competitors pertains to being ready in advance. 

“Make sure the audio isn’t too loud; do and focus on audio checks,” Rubio said. With winning first for the audience award and second for judge’s choice, Crutch was successful with being well prepared for their performance. 

Returning Battle of the Bands competitor junior Sawyer Pasquinelli is a bassist and vocalist for the band called the Marshall Brothers. His opinion of this past Battle of the Bands was positive and optimistic. 

“Personally, our set was probably the best it had been… we had some issues with volume and some mess-ups on drums, but that’s all I would fix,” Pasquinelli said. “I thought that they [other performances] were all really solid.” 

Overall, the 2026 Battle of the Bands was a great experience for students to express their musical talents to Eagle High, with their legacy and confidence carrying down to future contestants.