State Champions – Los Alamos High School Marching Band. See their last performance Friday evening at Sullivan Field. Photo Courtesy LAPS
Band director Steve Iliff, righr, and Assistanr Director Zane Meek. Photo Courtesy LAPS
LAPS NEWS RELEASE
For the second year in a row, the Los Alamos High School Topper Marching Band is the NMAA 4A New Mexico State Marching Band Champions. This year’s competition was held at Rio Rancho High School last Saturday and featured 24 high school bands representing 4A and 5A high schools.
Their score of 76.738 overall in the finals bested marching bands from Santa Teresa, Goddard and Lovington. They also received awards for outstanding music, outstanding general effect (GE), outstanding percussion and outstanding colorguard.
The band is under the direction of Steve Iliff. He is assisted by Zane Meek and Christine Subratie. This is Iliff’s 4th year as director of the Topper Marching Band.
“We are incredibly proud of our students in the Topper Marching Band this year,” Iliff said. “They have worked so hard this season beginning with our fundamentals camps in May, Summer Band, Monday night rehearsals and even a Saturday and Monday when we were out of school.”
“Like many fall sports, we dealt with unusually poor weather this season and had to operate in a constant state of adjustment and back up plans,” Iliff noted. “The students had a great attitude and rose to the occasion. This is also a true testament to the quality and high standards of our coaching staff.”
“I am so proud of all these students for the work and love they put into this season; the energy and excitement they brought to making this show come to life has been so much fun to be a part of,” said Meek. “We established a high standard from the very beginning and they just took it and ran with it.”
He added, “I’d like to give a big shout-out to Steve Iliff for the countless hours it took to put together a great program as well as his leadership and the rest of my colleagues – Allison Beaux, Christine Subratie, Ryan Bloom, and DeDe Mendez – for their tireless dedication to the success of the students and the show. Of course, our band parents have been awesome as well; we can’t thank them enough for their willingness to step up in support of the whole band.”
“During their final performance it started to rain, and the stadium was electric when the rain came down,” said Subrate. “People were standing up, cheering, and the students took that energy and put it into an amazing performance. It truly gave me goosebumps and it was so nice to see the students rewarded not only for their resilience through the rain, but for all of their hard work throughout this entire season. This group has been so fun to teach!”
This year’s band features 102 musicians and 19 dancers. Drum majors this year are juniors Charlotte Lay and Sean Lo. and senior Sumner Tholen.
The group began practicing for the 2026 season before the start of the school year. They have performed this year’s show, the FiVth Planet, during halftime at home football games the band showcase held last week at Sullivan Field. They also performed at the Los Lunas Invite and UNM Zia Marching Fiesta.
This year’s performance includes arrangements of “Jupiter” by Earth Wind and Fire, “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell “Jupiter, from The Planets” by Gustav Holst, and “Rocketman” by Elton John. It featured solos by Eli Farley, Liv Niklasson, Caitlynn Romero, and Christopher Teague.
This is only the third year for the state marching band championships. In 2024, the marching band placed 3rd behind Lovington and Goddard with a score of 65.4, Last year the band garnered a first place finish with a score of 68.3 and the award for high musical achievement.
The Topper Marching Band will give its final performance of The FiVth Planet this Friday during halftime of the Varsity football game at Sullivan Field as the Toppers host the Patriots in the final regular season game. Game time is 7 pm. Gates open at 6 pm.