After four months, six seniors are enjoying an outstanding final year with the Montgomery County Pride Band.

Josh Cobb, Brayden Hancock, Mariah Kemp, Hayden McKenzie, Paige Sellenriek and Lexy Veach make up the senior class and helped the band finish in the top two in two competitions this year – a first place at Mark Twain and a second place at South Shelby

“I think we had a pretty good marching season,” Kemp said.

The seniors got to participate in the Winter Concert for the final time on Dec. 18. The event was held at the same place where their longtime friendship got started – Montgomery County Middle School.

Sellenriek said she enjoyed working with her five other senior classmates all four years.

“It’s fun,” she said. “Everybody is pretty much like family. We’ve known each other since middle school.”

The six musicians were part of a band that included freshmen, sophomores, juniors and eighth-grade students. They played “African Bell Carol,” “Rippling WaterColors,” “Christmas Time with Charlie Brown” and “Silver Sable.”

“I loved the songs that we played,” Veach said.

Veach plays the tenor saxophone, Hancock plays the trumpet, Cobb plays the tuba and Kemp, McKenzie and Sellenriek are percussionists.

McKenzie had plenty of percussion experience before joining the MCHS band when he was a freshman. “I have played drums since I was 8 or 9,” McKenzie said. “So it’s something I’ve grown up with. I played the clarinet for three months when I moved here in eighth grade.”

All of the seniors are playing under a new director in Lauren Seifried, who replaced Casey Dillon-Chipman, who is now a counselor at MCHS.

“She’s very blunt about what we’re doing wrong and what we’re doing right,” Cobb said. “She does a good job on giving us constructive criticism to make us a better band.”

Kemp, who plans to attend St. Charles Community College and major in graphic design and creative design, said playing with the band has been quite an experience.

“The band challenges you,” Kemp said. “You get to try new things and you have to learn more stuff. It’s a challenge, but it’s a good thing. It’s fun.”