2011 Marching Band Season post--already....

[Katy Belle]

Our football team won and our Marching Band looked fantastic on Friday night! DS16 was sick Thursday and missed about 5 hours of practice... he nearly backed over another Tuba player because he was moving too fast on one section Luckily the other guy saw him and stuck out a hand to stop him! Our band still needs a lot of work.. as does the color guard, the cheer leaders, the football team and the Pom Squad... but it was a great start!

 

[Gina]

What an awesome game Friday night... The team is 2-0 now, and the band looked and sounded so great. I am so loving the music for this show!! I still don't think their new uniforms look as sharp on the field as the old ones, but I don't totally hate these.

I just hate that it's a non-UIL year for us, as far as State goes. They're still doing some UIL competitions, like Galena Park, and some other random competitions, but I guess just for the points. I just feel like there's no big goal like there was last year, to get to State. Oh well, next year!

 

[jen0610]

Got the schedule for the 1st competition this Saturday.

They will be rehearsing from 1 to 5.

Load the semi 5 to 6.

Leave the school 6ish and travel to site, arriving 7ish.

Unload semi and get dressed and ready by 8.

The circle up is at 8:15, with moving to warm ups at 8:45.

We'll take the field at 9:59.

And awards at 10:38.

Get the judges evaluations, out of uniforms, and load the semi and leave for home by midnight.

Pick the boy up 1ish.

And lets not forget, that DS's section is meeting for breakfast/lunch at 10:30 before they all head over to the school.


The weather is calling for a high of 74 during the day, but dropping to 55 for a low with scattered thunder storms. YEA!!!!! Last year by the time the A class bands got to perform, only one of the 5 bands didn't march on a fog covered field. By the last band, it was really bad.

It's been rain - off and on for two days now. Rain is being called for on Friday, plus the rain on Saturday and someone had the lovely idea that opening the show with our band laying on the ground was a good thing. I really hope, for the next 3 practices, they work on an alternate option. I would really hate to see the unifroms soaked at the first competition.

 

[golfgal]

We FINALLY get to see the show in full uniform tonight-first home football game . They have two competitions tomorrow so we will see the show 3 times this weekend. I can hardly wait. There are so many visuals that use their uniforms that are going to look pretty cool.

 

[Pembo]

It has been a rainy/sunny/rainy day here so as a fair-weather fan, I think we are skipping the game tonight. It's another away game and they are doing the same show for the 3rd week in a row. Next week is a new show and I can't wait. Our first competition is the 24th.


I hope the kids get to march w/o raincoats but the weather here has been back and forth all day. At least it's not 90 like last week.

GL to all the bands tonight......

 

[golfgal]

It has been a rainy/sunny/rainy day here so as a fair-weather fan, I think we are skipping the game tonight. It's another away game and they are doing the same show for the 3rd week in a row. Next week is a new show and I can't wait. Our first competition is the 24th.


I hope the kids get to march w/o raincoats but the weather here has been back and forth all day. At least it's not 90 like last week.

GL to all the bands tonight......

Our band won't march in the rain-uniforms partially but MOSTLY instruments. They got caught in a quick downpour at the first football game last year-BOTH of the kids' saxophones needed new pads . They were lining up to take the field and the ONE cloud in the sky dumped rain on them, rest of the night was just fine.

Our band only does one show/year-WAY too much to put together more than one and get it perfected. They add bits and pieces through the year to polish it though.

 

[golfgal]

The show looked good!! It was nice to see it in full uniform and from a good vantage point. It will be fun to see what everyone else has for shows tomorrow!!

We left after the 3rd quarter of the football game though-we were up 31-0...

 

[momof1princess]

OMG, y'all, i spent over 3 hours working our concession stand tonight, and my lower back, knees and feet hurt SO bad, i want to cry. i've already informed DH he WILL be rubbing my feet before bed, and i think i'm going to need a handful of ibuprofen. and ice packs...lots of ice packs.

 

[golfgal]

OMG, y'all, i spent over 3 hours working our concession stand tonight, and my lower back, knees and feet hurt SO bad, i want to cry. i've already informed DH he WILL be rubbing my feet before bed, and i think i'm going to need a handful of ibuprofen. and ice packs...lots of ice packs.

I don't blame you. I have never worked concession stands for that exact reason-standing on the hard floor all night is just NOT good. We only have the concession stand for our home show though.

 

[momof1princess]

I don't blame you. I have never worked concession stands for that exact reason-standing on the hard floor all night is just NOT good. We only have the concession stand for our home show though.

i think i'll stick to working 1/2 games from now on. i just can't do the whole thing. i'm still hurting this morning. band boosters are responsible for the concession stands at all home games for the varsity (friday nights), junior varsity (monday nights) and middle school (monday nights) football games. i don't think i'll be doing any mondays.

 

[golfgal]

i think i'll stick to working 1/2 games from now on. i just can't do the whole thing. i'm still hurting this morning. band boosters are responsible for the concession stands at all home games for the varsity (friday nights), junior varsity (monday nights) and middle school (monday nights) football games. i don't think i'll be doing any mondays.

Nice fundraiser for the band . Our football boosters get dibs on the concession stand.

 

[momof1princess]

Nice fundraiser for the band . Our football boosters get dibs on the concession stand.

yes we make really good money on the concessions. unfortunately, a good chunk of it is eaten up by transportation costs for away football games (which i don't think the football teams have to pay). at our school, band boosters have always done the concession stands, but if we hadn't gotten our act together quickly this year (we had that whole thing with the boosters supposedly being "disbanded"), we would've lost the concession stands to the football boosters, and we would've never gotten them back.

 

[Pembo]

The choir boosters corner the market on the concession stand here.

The rain held off all night and the team won! We are now 1-2. The show they marched ends with the opener for the comp. show. He said it fell apart last night. I'm sure the average person couldn't tell.

Today they have rehearsal from 9-3 to finish the last 5 pages of drill on the closer and then they practice the entire competetion show the rest of the day. Unfortunately it's another rain/sun/rain day. The kids will be most likely be wet at some point.

DS had 14 band kids over for pizza AFTER the game last night. Two observations - 1. they powered away 4 pizzas and cupcakes in record time
2. they are LOUD as a group

 

[golfgal]

yes we make really good money on the concessions. unfortunately, a good chunk of it is eaten up by transportation costs for away football games (which i don't think the football teams have to pay). at our school, band boosters have always done the concession stands, but if we hadn't gotten our act together quickly this year (we had that whole thing with the boosters supposedly being "disbanded"), we would've lost the concession stands to the football boosters, and we would've never gotten them back.

Busing is so expensive. Our band directors told us that it costs $15,000 for transportation costs to go to the show in St. Louis . That includes the buses for the kids and renting a semi cab to pull the trailer with all the big equipment. WOW!!

We had a LONG day yesterday-had our home show during the day so we reported to the school at 9:30, left there at 6:00 after finishing up the part i was helping with, came home, ate dinner (had some friends/family over too), went to a second competition at 8:00 (only went for the last 5 bands), got home around 11:00, company left at 11:30. We won the second show (don't compete in your home shows-just exhibition performance).

 

[momof1princess]

Busing is so expensive. Our band directors told us that it costs $15,000 for transportation costs to go to the show in St. Louis . That includes the buses for the kids and renting a semi cab to pull the trailer with all the big equipment. WOW!!

We had a LONG day yesterday-had our home show during the day so we reported to the school at 9:30, left there at 6:00 after finishing up the part i was helping with, came home, ate dinner (had some friends/family over too), went to a second competition at 8:00 (only went for the last 5 bands), got home around 11:00, company left at 11:30. We won the second show (don't compete in your home shows-just exhibition performance).

HOLY COW! we'd be staying home! we have our first exhibition on tuesday-it's county wide, and we probably won't be back until around 10:15pm. i HATE when they do stuff like this on school nights. our next 2 football games are away games, so my knees and feet have some time to recover, lol.

 

[golfgal]

HOLY COW! we'd be staying home! we have our first exhibition on tuesday-it's county wide, and we probably won't be back until around 10:15pm. i HATE when they do stuff like this on school nights. our next 2 football games are away games, so my knees and feet have some time to recover, lol.

St. Louis is the pinnacle of our season. Everything the band does is geared toward that competition. With our band fees and fundraisers, we cover the costs. Our band program is 100% self-supporting.

 

[momof1princess]

St. Louis is the pinnacle of our season. Everything the band does is geared toward that competition. With our band fees and fundraisers, we cover the costs. Our band program is 100% self-supporting.

us too, and thank goodness! if we had to depend on funding from our school, we'd never get to go anywhere! school budgets are as tight as they can get around here. we've got 2 competitions coming up, maybe 3 if we can squeeze it in, but they're not nearly as big as the one in st. louis. ours are all local-i think the furthest we'll be driving is about 2 hours.

 

[golfgal]

us too, and thank goodness! if we had to depend on funding from our school, we'd never get to go anywhere! school budgets are as tight as they can get around here. we've got 2 competitions coming up, maybe 3 if we can squeeze it in, but they're not nearly as big as the one in st. louis. ours are all local-i think the furthest we'll be driving is about 2 hours.

We do 4 shows in our metro area not including our home show, one about 3 hours away and then St. Louis (9 hour car ride, 12 hour bus). Our closest show (other than our home show) is about 3 miles from our high school, it's $2500 to bus the kids over there--it's just crazy how much busing costs.

In our old town the "close" show is 1 1/2 hours away. Most of their shows are 3 hours away because that is where the shows are. Some friends of ours, before their kid started in their marching band, kept asking why they couldn't just go to shows in the neighboring towns---um, because they don't HAVE shows there

 

[momof1princess]

We do 4 shows in our metro area not including our home show, one about 3 hours away and then St. Louis (9 hour car ride, 12 hour bus). Our closest show (other than our home show) is about 3 miles from our high school, it's $2500 to bus the kids over there--it's just crazy how much busing costs.

In our old town the "close" show is 1 1/2 hours away. Most of their shows are 3 hours away because that is where the shows are. Some friends of ours, before their kid started in their marching band, kept asking why they couldn't just go to shows in the neighboring towns---um, because they don't HAVE shows there

we have a pretty big (for our state) marching band festival in our city. bands come from all over the area, and even a couple from the birmingham metro area, to participate. it's an all-day thing, but, luckily, we don't perform until around 4:30pm, so we only spend about 6-7 hours there.
i'm not sure how much busing costs us; we use school buses for everything, but still have to pay fuel, usage and driver costs. we only rent tour buses if we're going on a long trip (4 hours+)

 

[golfgal]

we have a pretty big (for our state) marching band festival in our city. bands come from all over the area, and even a couple from the birmingham metro area, to participate. it's an all-day thing, but, luckily, we don't perform until around 4:30pm, so we only spend about 6-7 hours there.
i'm not sure how much busing costs us; we use school buses for everything, but still have to pay fuel, usage and driver costs. we only rent tour buses if we're going on a long trip (4 hours+)

We use the school buses for the shows around our metro but take coach buses to the long trips but, we take 4 buses to each show. The school buses pull small trailers for all of the instruments, coach buses they store their instruments in the luggage holds. It's just expensive.