• Article Photo. After four years in the VSHS Marching Band, 2013 grad Claire Andreesen will play for ISU band.
    After four years in the VSHS Marching Band, 2013 grad Claire Andreesen will play for ISU band.
  • Article Photo. After four years in the VSHS Marching Band, 2013 grad Claire Andreesen will play for ISU band.
    After four years in the VSHS Marching Band, 2013 grad Claire Andreesen will play for ISU band.

When Claire Andreesen went to Ames this week to begin her career as a student at Iowa State University, her first goal was to make the marching band. 

After auditions on Wednesday, Claire learned that she indeed has earned a spot on the musical team known as ISUCFVMB (Iowa State University Cyclone Football Varsity Marchiing Band).

The daughter of Larry and Jan Andreesen of rural Vinton, Claire earned several band  and jazz band awards during her high school career. She plays the alto saxophone.

"I am so happy," Claire announced to her Facebook friends. Yet, she said, the first day of band practice was "the craziest and most exhausting thing I have ever done in my life."

Jan explained the audition process and ISU band schedule:

Over 500 tried out for 335+ spots in the Cyclone Marching Band -- in Claire's case more than 35 tried out for 22 alto sax spots.  The process took two days. On Tuesday they met at 9:30 am and practiced marching until lunch. After lunch they practiced the music.  After supper at 5:30, they had 3 more hours of marching practice.  Wednesday morning, she had tryouts at 9:30 am and this took most of the morning. She marched in small groups and later played her music for the judges. For the music portion they stood behind a partition so they could only be heard and not seen.  

Jan said Claire described the entire process as "very, very busy and extremely intense."

Results were posted at 4 p.m. that same day and by 6 p.m. Claire had reported to her first meeting as a member of the ISU Football Varsity Marching Band.  She is practicing all day today starting at 7 a.m. and will have practices every day up until the first home game against UNI next Saturday at 7 p.m.