At De Soto High School, one of the biggest student programs in the school is the marching band, which just had its first performance of the year.

The band debuted the first part of their show at halftime of the football game on Friday. The show was themed around James Bond.

After marching onto the field, the band burst into playing the James Bond theme. They marched around the field while playing, at one point forming the numbers “007” and taking a break from marching to dance while they played. Band director Matt Bradford felt that the performance went according to plan.

“I thought it went well. The students played it even better than I thought they would,” Bradford said.

Along with Bradford, the drum majors also had positive things to say.

“I thought the performance went very well. The freshmen did awesome, and everyone did good at paying attention and being flexible with the craziness of the first game,” said senior drum major Mackenzie Lancaster.

The band did not debut their entire show, however. After ending the marching of James Bond theme, the band stood in place and played three more songs: Skyfall, Goldfinger and Live and Let Die, which featured junior soloist Alexander Michalek.

“We are pretty close. We should be better after we have some more time together,” Bradford said. “Its always about the basics, so we need to get better at that. Stepping off on time, keeping our toes up and all that. We need to focus on that because that is what will separate us from an average band.”

Lancaster also added that the band needs to “focus on improving every rehearsal” and “not stay complacent with how we are.”

The next performance for the Marching Wildcats is on Sept. 20 at the home football game.