The Greatest Halftime Show

Marching band season kicks off

By Ross Boissoneau

The crowd goes silent, all eyes glued to the 50-yard line. There, teams aren’t lining up to blitz, pass, or tackle. This moment is about musicians taking a breath before filling the stadium with the sounds of everything from Sousa to Lady Gaga, “The Star Spangled Banner” to the school fight song.

Across the region, as football season begins, so too does marching band season. Schools large and small showcase the skills of their bands as trumpets and trombones blare, woodwinds trill, and fans throughout the stadium tap their feet to the beat of the drums.

Practice Makes Perfect

Like their football counterparts, marching band musicians have their own pre-season practices. For some schools, it’s a few hours a week; for others, two weeks of two-a-days.

Those summer hours come in handy during the season. Due to the nature of class scheduling, there’s rarely space in the daily high school schedule for the marching band to meet. “We have Tuesday night rehearsals during the season,” says Aaron Hotelling, the marching band director at Gaylord High School.

At Traverse City St. Francis, marching band director Charles Taylor says some 90 percent of the students in band are also involved in athletics. “We can’t do rehearsals. We get it done in the summer,” he says.

With such limited time to practice, choosing the material for their shows becomes paramount. For most, it’s a process that involves other staff as well as the band members themselves. “We get song [suggestions] from the students,” says Chad Mielens, band director at Traverse City West High School.

Hotelling agrees. “The kids give us ideas,” he says.

At St. Francis, Charles says he and the staff start in the spring, listening to music and to student suggestions. He says it’s important to select music that the students and crowd will enjoy, as well as to find pieces that aren’t too easy. “We want the kids to be challenged,” he says.

Mielens says once all thoughts and suggestions are in, the band leaders come up with an overall conceptual theme that the music will coalesce around. “This year, it’s the circus,” he says of the show that’s been dubbed “The Greatest Show on Turf,” borrowing the phrase from the St. Louis Rams’ record-breaking offense during the 1999, 2000, and 2001 NFL seasons. The show includes music from the film The Greatest Showman, Cirque du Soleil, and even Britney Spears’ pop hit “Circus.”

As at most schools, the band plays one show for the entirety of the season. That allows them to continue to perfect the music and the marching routines. “We have one for the year. I have someone who does the music and someone who does the drill,” Mielens says.

Conflict Competition

As teams vary in size, so too do the bands, not only from school to school but from year to year. “Last year we had close to 80 kids. This year it’s at least 60,” says Taylor of the St. Francis band, though that’s on a good day. When conflicts arise—and they inevitably do—the band suffers. “If we have cross-country on the same day as football, there’s not enough kids to march. If it’s a Saturday afternoon game, we’re almost