It’s halftime and it’s the band’s turn to perform. Junior Maria Dominguez takes a deep breath as the drum major begins to count them off, and she begins marching.

During contest season, Dominguez spent her time at band practice preparing for contest; now that extra practices are over, she has more time to focus on her academics and art and painting. She enjoys drawing and painting now that she has more time for it.

“I love to draw because it just makes me forget about everything that’s going on and I just feel free and happy when I am drawing,” Dominguez said. “When I finish the drawing I top it off with painting, it just gives the drawing life and it also gives me life too.”

During school, she keeps to herself but she always has a smile on her face and she is always laughing. Her positive attitude helps her in class by helping her focus.

“You can never tell when Maria is feeling sad or mad or anything,” junior Selina Zacarias said. “She always laughs and smiles no matter what and it makes me have good days when I start off bad.”

Dominguez has been involved in band for five years and plays the trumpet. Her skill and talent when she marches and plays.

“Maria has very good technique when it comes to marching, and it helps the band a lot because she is a good example to use when we show the newbies how to march,” band director Jeff Villarreal said. “Her sound from her instrument is amazing as well, and just in general Maria is a great leader and musician.”