While Odessa High School and Permian High School have one of the biggest rivalries in the Lone Star State, its respective bands put competition on the backburner to come together for one of their own. Odessa High School band member Adonica Sauseda has begun her fight against multiple myeloma, a type of cancer in which cancerous plasma cells build up in bone marrow.
"As she continues to battle cancer, she knows the Broncho Band has her back," the Broncho Band said in an October 7th Facebook post. "We want to thank Permian High School Band and Frenship Band Boosters for also wearing a ribbon for Adonica! 'Band is one family and will always be there for each other.'"
Per a report from Odessa NBC station KWES News, Permian band director Jeff Whitaker said that amid the excitement of the rivalry game, he and his group couldn’t take their minds off Adonica. "We discovered and were notified that one of our fellow band members across town was not doing well and we want that young lady to go to all the rivalry games for the rest of her life, which should be forever," Whitaker told the station. "We want her to go to all these things and so we want to support and help them out."
KWES reported that Adonica’s counterparts at Permian commiserated with her and her bandmates, who all say that rivalries don’t define who they are as members of a unique community, band kids. "We all know what we go through, we all know what we experience through band, and we all do the same thing," Permian senior band captain Tony Jimenez said in the report. Another reason why the rivalry is secondary? "We are all Odessians," Permian senior drum major Sapna Yadalla to KWES.
As for the Permian Basin’s most highly anticipated gridiron matchup, Odessa defeated Permian 49-42 in overtime to take the Rumble at Ratliff for the first time in a decade, Odessa CBS affiliate KOSA News reported.