What is your favorite extracurricular?

[okeydokey]

Band by far is my most enjoyable. It's one class all year, marching and concert, and my DD is also in color guard. Their high school experience especially has been positively influenced by their time in band more than anything else. They are getting remarkable instruction, practicing leadership skills and spending time with what I believe are the best kids in the school. I volunteer with the band so it also gives me a great opportunity to spend quality time with my teens, which is priceless.

They play in the stands and march a show at all football games, home and away. Gate proceeds go only to the football program. The band are very underfunded, especially when you consider that there are many more music students in the school than football players. The band room is small and gross and the auditorium terrible for sound.

They do get to work concessions at home games, which is great. A couple of years ago, the football parents wanted to take over concessions revenue for the football program as well. Of course they didn't want to "work" the counter and miss seeing the game. They figured band parents would be happy to do that and they would just take the money. Ha ha. Thankfully the principal at the time shot them down.

 

[bjscheel]

DD16 does track, choir, and theater. I love to watch her in track even though it's often cold and windy. We go to almost every meet, home or away. She is one of the top 4 runners on the team so we get to see her in 4 events usually so it's worth our while She qualified for State in 3 events this year.

DD13 plays rec soccer and will play for HS next year. She was recently in a middle school play that was so much fun to watch and fun for her to practice and perform. I look forward to more of that in HS.

I don't look forward to next year when we have two high schoolers in two different spring sports. You have to split up, skip games, and/or be gone 4 nights a week...

 

[unhinged]

Wow! Ours draws occasional complaints from away coaches because not only do they play halftime, they play "pep band" selections in the stand during the game similar to a college marching band at the big football schools, and apparently it gives us too much home field advantage. The refs, of course, are having none of that logic but for the band it is a point of pride and they do play at every home and neutral site playoff game, up to and including the championship. When the football team won the state championship a few years back the band absolutely rocked Ford Field; there isn't a kid in the band who would have thought for a second about missing it!

I have to give our marching band credit. They are very, very good. And they work so very hard. Their booster club rivals the football money, if not more. They certainly don't need the football team. They have their own fully logo painted semi that hauls the equipment around, new uniforms all the time, and travel to numerous competitions.

But I can also say that we football parents were disappointed when they didn't show up for our home football games. We actually really enjoy seeing them. While the JV pom squad did their best at halftime, it did get a bit old after awhile. And the couple of times they did march at a game (homecoming,) they were in jeans and a t-shirt or their letter jackets, no uniform at all. We thought it was a bit thumbing their noses at the football team, that if they had to be there, fine, but they weren't going to dress up. At least the flag squad was in uniform.

 

[unhinged]

If they charged to see a high school football game here no one would go- heck hardly anyone goes with it free LOL. Its just not that big of a deal, its just high school ball.

We have to pay to get into football and basketball and some swim meets, $5.00 for adults, $3 for home game students with a student ID. Students can also buy an activity pass at the beginning of the year that gets them into all home games of every sport free. The away team students have to pay full price. This is standard at all games in the league.

 

[MainMom]

Swimming
Soccer
Tennis

In that order. Once she gets to HS tennis will go (same season as swimming) and she will probably join other things.

I personally did not enjoy the middle school play she did or choir concerts. I did like that it made her happy and she had a good time. It really helped her move to middle school from elementary. (Our middle school doesn't allow kids to play sports until 7th grade.)

 

[luvsJack]

If they charged to see a high school football game here no one would go- heck hardly anyone goes with it free LOL. Its just not that big of a deal, its just high school ball.

Oh, see its like the weekly social event around here. Everyone goes somewhere to enjoy those Friday night lights. Usually the high school they graduated from. For the Homecoming game, it can be almost like a class reunion. Gate prices are $5-$10 per person (less for students) and no one has an issue paying it. DD's high school makes an insane amount of money at one home game and it can easily double during a winning season and of course Homecoming is the biggie, and they can double or triple their income for that game.

Some games, you just know to get there at least an hour before the game or you will be standing instead of sitting in the stands.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

How does your band "bring in money"? The parent booster club for our band has a snack stand at football games. Besides that, students do fundraising to pay for trips. Our concert band and chorus concerts are free of charge. And competitions don't have cash prizes. The band does have a budget for instruments and music, and we use school buses for local transportation. But for a big trip, students pay for it themselves. I don't know what will happen when it's time to replace the uniforms. We might have to raise that money. The parent booster club pays to have them dry cleaned, for sure.

Our band had 3 major fundraisers per year. 2 were orange & grapefruit sales & we brought in $10-15,000 per year with that. We also hosted what was at the time the largest band festival in the state. Our band festival did not charge admission, but we drew in excess of 10,000 band members & spectators. And we sold the heck out of concessions LOL.

This was a large band: 180-200 marchers when I was in high school.

I saw where one local band is hosting a competition mud bog race as a fund raiser now