KINGSTON — The hardest-working band around might not be Modest Mouse or 5 Seconds Of Summer.

The average age in this group is 12, and when these musicians aren’t performing they’re likely doing homework.

It’s the Kingston Middle School band.

The band performed in Bremerton’s Armed Forces Day Parade and Poulsbo’s Viking Fest Parade on May 21. Immediately following, the musicians boarded buses and headed to Victoria, B.C., where they performed May 22 at the Parliament Building several times, and then marched in the Victoria Day Parade on

May 23. They then quickly packed up and got home by midnight so they could get back to school the next day.

Ask KMS band director Jeffery Haag and he will tell you these kids are special and they work hard.

“I’ve got high expectations for my students,” Haag said. “These guys tend to play above their grade level. We learn the fundamentals and we work hard as a team … You’d be amazed. As a group you can do amazing things.”

The band performed four times that long weekend and competed against more than 20 bands from the U.S. and Canada in both high school and middle school categories.

In the Victoria Day Parade, which was broadcast live, the band played for 100,000 people. The KMS Cavalier Marching Corps was described by announcers as having performed in the parade for eight years, and having placed first four times.

This year, the KMS band earned the Judges Overall Award and was asked to return for Canada’s 150th anniversary celebration.

“This is the highest honor they have ever earned at this parade,” Haag said. “Canada loves hearing American bands up there. They think American bands put on exciting shows. We’ve been asked to come back next year to help celebrate 150th anniversary of Canada.”

The students said it was an exhausting weekend.

“We just laid on the ground — tired,” drum major/clarinet player Emily Arneson  said. “We were exhausted, but it was awesome. It’s definitely an honor to get to lead the Kingston Middle School band, and we got to do it.”

Emily said although she hopes to go into a medical field in the future, she likes the stage and tries to integrate her music into that.

“I feel really proud to lead such a great band,” drum major/alto sax player Alex McCollum said. “It just feels really special.”

Their favorite song of the weekend: “You Really Got Me,” by the Kinks, played during their march at Viking Fest.

The band, composed of three classes, not only meets daily for class but the jazz band also meets before school Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Some seventh- and eighth-graders also perform in the marching band, practicing during lunches and putting in additional practice hours after school in preparation for shows.

“I let the upper classmen work with younger classmen in teaching our band traditions and methods,” Haag said. “[Some] after-school practices would involve seventh- and eighth-graders, plus members of the Kingston High School Band helping out.”

The Parade Squad practices with the marching band as well. The Kingston Band Boosters works year-round to ensure the band’s needs are met; 100 students and 30 chaperones participated in the trip to Canada.

Haag thanked the Kingston Band Boosters and the North Kitsap School District for their ongoing support.

“They really do a lot for our program,” he said.

While in B.C., the band received rave reviews from Dave Dunnet, a well-known Canadian music educator and chief judge of the Victoria parade.

“As someone with many years of experience with all that goes into fund raising, preparation, organization and accompanying young performing groups in travel, I want to extend my sincere congratulations to the Kingston Middle School Band Boosters and to the school’s administration,” Dunnet said.

“Your band boosters unit [gets] behind the band at a supportive but non-interfering distance.”

He added, “As chief judge, I am pleased to award the Kingston Band Boosters parade unit with my Gold Standard Award.”

KMS band members were thanked for their example set for other school groups, and their justifiable pride in participation.

Haag, who has been with the district since 1993, said he will really miss this class.

“I’m very proud of these guys. According to the judges’ perspective, the band was just as cohesive as some of the leading performing high school bands. They do a professional job, to make this work. I’m very proud of these students and all that they did.”

He added, “I am old school. I am constantly stressing … a disciplined approach to playing an instrument while learning how to work as a team. If they can learn to do that, they can use those skills later in life.”