belonging
THE DERRYFIELD SCHOOL
FALL 2018
Athletics and Arts in Tandem: The Spirit of Derryfield Wildly popular Derryfield band ‘The Tiny Spoons’ left big shoes to fill following their graduation with the class of 2018. However, their shoes were not left empty for long, as the latest DS musical sensation, ‘Step One’, took the stage at the Junior Class Talent Show on October 5 th, bringing home the gold with their rendition of “Hey Jude.” Given the energy and spirit of the performance, it was hard to tell that Jael Fleurant ’19, Matt Michaud ’19, Eric Chapdelaine ’20, Yash Patel ’20, Lucas Gendron ’21, Gavin Kurdek ’22, Alex DeGregorio ’22, Charley Chang ’22, and Molly Mahar ’22 had competed in a race shortly before taking the stage. While they play a range of instruments from drums to clarinet to violin, all band members share one thing in common: they are runners for the school D-IV championship cross country team, coached by Shannon Best. Inspiration struck on the bus home from a meet, during which Charley began playing his violin. Jael asked if he could play “Hey Jude,” one of her favorite songs, and to everyone’s surprise, he was able to play it by ear within minutes. According to Coach Best, the idea to form a band began as a joke, but when “Eric piped in with something along the lines of, ‘This is my dream, I said this last year! Come on you guys...we have got to do this,’” they set about procuring music and scheduled their first practice for the very next day. “I love the idea of “Hey Jude,” because everybody knows it,” Eric says of their choice for their debut. Yash points out that leading up to the talent show, the team rehearsed for 15 minutes after practice each day. Although they had never performed with each other B e l o n g i n g : F a l l 2 0 18
before, their success on the race course easily translated into musical success. “Cross country is such an individual sport, so you kind of have to be very supportive, and that support carried right over in the band,” Eric notes, with Jael adding that “we have a unique team, we all trust each other, we’re all one big family.” The group’s hard work paid off the night of the talent show, as they delighted the crowd with their rousing performance of “Hey Jude” with Jael on lead vocals. The performance culminated with the audience chanting the chorus and clapping in rhythm along with the musicians, and it came as no surprise to everyone in attendance when ‘Step One’ earned overall first place. The unexpected sensation is a campus-wide hit, even going on to showcase their talents at the October 24th Leadership Reception. All ‘Step One’ required to take the stage was the support of each other, and belief in their abilities. As Coach Best says, “when it came to forming a band, they believed it would work because, seriously, how fun is that?!” Stay tuned for future performances—this star is on the rise.