After countless hours of practice, dedication and commitment, sophomore Harper Jones became the first overall flute player in Conference 5A in the State of Texas Jan. 18.

“It’s all sacrifice,” Jones said. “Trying to prioritize and being able to do something like that takes a lot of work and a lot of time. I’ve been working nonstop since I first started playing flute just to continuously get better.”

Jones is only a sophomore and has reached many achievements along with this one, such as being a soloist for the 2024-2025 Aledo Marching Band season, qualifying for All-Area in the 2023-2024 school year, and having a State qualifying solo for Texas state Solo and Ensemble contest in the 2023 – 2024 school year. For this achievement, she was competing against more than 70,000 other musicians. 

“I’ve seen her practicing so much during flex and throughout the year,” sophomore Ava Roark said. “I’m so proud of her. She totally deserved this. She put in all that hard work and got something great out of it” 

Along with Jones, Roark also was a part of the All-Region process in the 2023-2024 school year and 2024-2025 school year.

“First of all, it’s a huge honor for any kid to make it into the Allstate band,” band director Jake Albin said. “Secondly, to do it as a sophomore is even harder. She’s technically ranked the number one flute player in 5A flutes in the state. That’s an even bigger deal.” 

As a freshman last year Jones “didn’t even know what it was or anything about the All-Region process”.  As she worked more on All-Region music she said she “grew exponentially”.

“My freshmen year at the region process I advanced to Area, but not State,” Jones said. “Since then I’ve been working tirelessly to grow my skills, playing flute, and tone abilities exponentially.”