It’s 6:30 a.m. and the Spirit of Arcadia marching band is already tuning up for practice.

Just six years ago, there was no marching band. It had been cancelled after the 2009-10 school year in favor of other programs. Now, they are the defending state champions.

In 2013 Jan Gardner was hired to bring the marching band back to life.

“It (the band) was something that wasn’t promoted, nurtured to stay there,” Gardner said. “So, part of my job when they hired me was to grow the complete program, not just the marching band.”

After a year of planning, the Spirit of Arcadia was relaunched in 2014.

Gardner said it was hard to recruit students because they were already involved in other extracurricular activities. So he turned to freshmen looking for an extracurricular activity.

But freshmen came with inexperience.

“When you take brand new kids who know nothing and try to get them to the levels of high schools who have four years of kids who have been doing it, it was difficult,” Gardner said. “It took longer to get it back to where it should be because everyone was brand new.”

It did not take long to make the program competitive.

After rebuilding in the first two years, the band finished second at the state championship in 2016-17.

In 2017-18, the team won the state championship.

“It was ridiculous,” senior bass drummer Bryan Garcia said.

“I was in tears,” senior snare drummer Ally Van Lake said. She was especially happy to help the outgoing seniors who had been there when the program was at “rock bottom.”

Added Garcia: “It was really exhilarating for everybody. We knew early on that we had a product that could potentially win.”

Arcadia athletic director Cher Fesenmaier said it was unheard of to win the state championship in such a quick time.

“It was a huge pride for the school and the students themselves,” Fesenmaier said.

Gardner said that he built a winning program in such a short time by expecting band members to use their time together wisely.

“It’s not necessarily the amount of time, it’s the quality of the time they spend together and rehearse,” Gardner said.

He said the band is pushing themselves harder this year than they were last year to repeat as state champions.

“We have a whole bunch of new people, so we have to try to get that same work ethic as last year,” Garcia said.

Fesenmaier said the band is an alternative to traditional sports for students who still want to get involved.

“A lot of times students want to be involved in something they are passionate about versus the core classes that they have to take for graduation,” Fesenmaier said.

You can check out the Spirit of Arcadia Friday night when the football team takes on Seton Catholic at home at 7 p.m.

“We provide the fight song,” Gardner said. “Having that spirit factor with the marching band is really important.”