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UNION — After a summer of sweat, months of practice and giving 100 percent on the field each week, they will show what they’ve got one more time tonight at Williams Brice Stadium.

The Union County High School Band — affectionately known as The Sting Machine — will travel to Columbia and play during tonight’s state championship game.

Both the Union County and Hartsville bands will perform at halftime and Union County Band Director Matt Chastain said the Sting Machine has a special arrangement of music prepared especially for the event. Members of the UCHS band will perform segments of this year’s show — which they performed last month in its entirety at their own state championship appearance — combined with some of the pep songs played in the stands to keep the atmosphere energetic.

Chastain said students are looking forward to performing in the huge college stadium.

“A lot of them view it as a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity kind of thing, or at least something they will remember for the rest of their lives,” Chastain said.

Chastain also mentioned that the performance at a state championship game will be a first for him as well.

“I’ve never been with a school that made it past the second round of the playoffs,” he said.

Chastain said the band has spent time this week — during class and after-school rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday — learning new things that will support the atmosphere tonight at Williams Brice Stadium.

“We are there to play our role in the community — to keep the crowd energized and add to the atmosphere on the field for the team,” Chastain said.

Chastain said the band’s reason for being there is to support the football team.

“It will be a cool experience for us, but we’re going to support the football team, ultimately,” he said. “Our competitive season was over a month ago, and we began rehearsing for parade season, Christmas concerts and playoff games. The football team worked hard and won, and this is about them.”

Staff Writer Derik Vanderford can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 29, or by email at dvanderford@heartlandpublications.com.