They’re new. They’re small. And now they’re winners.

The 30-member Eastside Catholic School marching band took first place in judging at the Salmon Days parade Saturday morning. No small feat, considering it’s the first year the school had a marching band in about 25 years.

The school was established in 1980 and had a marching band early on. Band Director and music instructor Philip Dungey doesn’t know exactly when it disbanded, but there were clues: longtime Crusader dance instructor Karen Skoog had worked with the early band on drills before taking a sabbatical. When she returned in 1989, the band was gone, placing it’s demise at a likely 1988.

“There may have been some drumline things after that, but the band was no more,” Dungey said. “There was a music program. The school has always been supportive in offering the courses even when they weren’t popularly attended, because they believed it was important to have them.”

It was high school Vice Principal Matt Eisenhauer, the former director of bands for Newport High School, who first approached Dungey about reviving the marching band.

“When he came here two years ago, one of the first things he asked me was ‘What do you think about marching band?’” Dungey said. “When he said that, I told him, maybe if (we) had 100 or more students.

“He said ‘What about 25?,’ and I said ‘I don’t think so.’”

Dungey doubted a band of a few dozen could project sound on par with bands that boasted hundreds of players. He further worried that the performance aspects of marching bands came at the expense of proper musical fundamentals, and could instill permanent bad habits in tone and tune.

But the following Christmas, he attended the Midwest Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and visited college roommate Brian Van Kley, an assistant director of bands at Naperville North High School. Van Kley directed Dungey to YouTube videos of the Jackson Academy marching band from Mississippi.

“This band … was small and they were great,” he said. “As soon as I had that conversation with my friend, I came back and played the videos for my students.”

The Crusader music students had their own doubts about measuring up to other marching bands. That changed once they had an example of a small band in front of them.

“There was a lack of belief,” Dungey said. “Once they started watching videos they got more excited. It planted the seed in their minds.”

The administration was supportive of a renewed band and agreed to hire a drumline coach and marching coach. Middle school Vice Principal Mark Zmuda, himself a former drum major, offered to pitch in.

By the end of the 2012-2013 school year, Dungey had a headcount of students interested in joining up. About half were able to attend a band camp shortly before the new school year began.

It was a brave new world, but size was still a concern. Dungey recalled one early practice with only half the band, sharing the field with football practice.

“Our football coach (Jeremy Thielbahr) loved it, shouted ‘You guys sound great,’” he said. “Then he immediately turned to me and whispered ‘Is there going to be more kids?’”

The group started early morning outdoor practices, gradually bringing their act together and learning to incorporate the non-musical aspects of band into their performance, like maintaining proper space between players. All the while, Dungey tried to build on a foundation of music fundamentals.

The band played its first halftime field show at the Sept. 20 home game against Lake City, with “a bigger audience than any concert.”

After the band played Salmon Days and found out it had been awarded first place, the students’ excitement exploded.

“Right after, they were saying ‘Let’s do more parades!’” Dungey said.

The band has two more field shows planned on Oct. 18 and Oct. 25. But what Dungey really wants to do is bring the marching band onto the field of the Tacoma Dome, if Crusaders football can repeat last year’s postseason run.

“It kind of puts a lot of pressure on the football team,” he said laughing.