10/11/2021 Spirit of '76 Band Update
/We had a great 1st appearance at the Homecoming Football game Friday night. Let's keep up our momentum this week and add some fun stuff and get ready for the Rebel Invitational on Saturday!
Here is our current schedule:
Monday, Oct. 11: Rehearsal 2:30 - 3:30
Tuesday, Oct. 12: Rehearsal 2:30 - 5:15
Wednesday. Oct. 13: NO REHEARSAL DUE TO PARENT CONFERENCES
Thursday, Oct. 14: Rehearsal 2:30 - 5:15 (yes, I know this is a half day)
Monday, Oct. 18: NO SCHOOL and no rehearsal
Tuesday, Oct. 19: Rehearsal 2:30 - 5:15
Wednesday, Oct. 20: Rehearsal 5:30 - 8:30 (Alumni night)
Thursday, Oct. 21: Rehearsal 2:30 - 5:15
Load trucks immediately after rehearsal
Friday, Oct. 22: Bands of America Super Regional, arrive at 7:00 am--back at School is TBA
Home Football Game/Senior Night--Seniors and their parents will be recognized sometime at the game. We need parents' help. Please check out this Sign-up Genius: https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0E4CA4A72BA6F94-home
Saturday, Oct. 23: Bands of America Super Regional Finals (OPTIONAL). More details after the schedule.
10/25: Rehearsal
10/26: Rehearsal
10/27: Rehearsal--Middle School Night
10/28: Rehearsal
10/29: Last Rehearsal
I want to be upfront about something: A marching festival was scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 16 because it would have been 3 weeks between performances and that is not good for the group. As the semester has gone on, we have found out about 4 students who will be missing the day due to family obligations. I don't mind the family obligations, this is something that the students don't need to miss. What is disappointing is that the family events were planned on top of a day where the student already had a prior obligation scheduled. Only one student spoke to me in August when the schedule was finalized. This is where my disappointment starts. This is compounded by the fact that the group is quite small. As of right now, 22% of the band will be missing on Saturday. Both Mr. Wall and I knew this could be a factor, but we thought we would know about issues more than a week away from the festival. Monday, during our short rehearsal, we will be polling the band to decide whether the trip to the Rebel Invitational will help or hurt the band. I hope you can understand that the actual obligations are NOT the actual problem, it is the timing at which we found out. I ask that in the future, you consider your student's schedule also when scheduling family events.
Ok, so what is the Bands of American thing?
Bands of America is a National Marching Band Competition that allows students to perform in some of the best venues possible in the country, one of which is the Dome at the America's Center in St. Louis. When scheduling this year, students asked if there was any way we could attend BOA and play in the Dome. We applied, we're in and ended up getting a Friday morning time slot. This does help us avoid students who will be taking the ACT on Saturday, the 23rd. Friday the 22nd is ALSO Senior Night at the last home football game. ( I'll be sending out Senior Forms next week.) The awards ceremony for BOA is Saturday afternoon. Our drum majors will need to be there. Saturday night, the festival will hold Finals. The top 14 highest scoring bands will play for the Super Regional Championship. As much as I like to think optimistically, we will not make finals at BOA. The competition brings in the best of the best, the richest of the richest from around the mid-west area. Our goal, realistically, is to not get 59th place.
All that being said, our students have the opportunity to attend finals for FREE!. I encourage the students to go to the finals competition so they can see what those who take the competition VERY seriously are putting on the field. If you student has enjoyed watching other bands, then they shouldn't mis BOA finals.
Finals are also held in the Dome at the America Center--Downtown. The competition starts at 7:00 pm. In order for our students to get in free, they will need to be in a group with a staff member. So I will be there for the students to get them in for free. Here is what I suggest they do to get there: 1. Drive down with a parent and the parent pay to watch; 2. Drive down in a group and park in a parking garage. Parking will be expensive-it could be up to $30 for the event. You can split the cost of parking among everyone in the car. But, if you only have 4 or fewer people traveling together, I would suggest you take the Metro Link. The Shrewsbury station is the closest to South. I would be happy to meet you there to catch the 5:48 train. It will take about 45-50 minutes to ride the train but you don't have to pay for parking or deal with traffic. I think ticket prices are $2.50 per direction. As we get closer to the night, I'll get a list of who wants to go and how they plan to get there.
