Marching band prepares to take on new season, boosters work fundraising ideas

The academic year is still almost three weeks away, but the season has already started for many students at Marshall County High School.

Camps and pre-season training are in full force this week to prepare for the upcoming year. For about 116 kids in the Marshall County High School marching band, the largest number of participants the group has seen in recent years, working fundamentals on the field in the sweltering summer heat is just a small part of prepping for the season ahead. And it’s far more involved than some might realize.

The process actually begins at the end of the previous school year for students, and long before that for Head Director Ronnie Payton. Payton, who has been at Marshall County Schools for 18 years – first as assistant band director for MCHS and director for Benton Middle School, then moving to head director at MCHS about eight years ago – said though the competitive marching season concludes at the end of October, he’s back at it about a month later.

“We pretty much started looking at show concepts around the first of November,” Payton said. “… Most of that is not only just to get us prepared for the next season, but it’s in a day of copyright and everything else, trying to get copyright approval, sometimes isn’t the quickest thing in the world.”

Students receive their show music by the end of the school year, allowing for time to practice during the early summer. Those who play percussion instruments or participate in the color guard begin rehearsals mid-July. The full band starts its rehearsal schedule about a week later, in the days prior to band camp.

“A lot of it is just getting the physical demands back into them,” Payton said. “So, we try to take it easy for a few days in the conditioning part of pre-camp. … With band camp, we start full days, and we work them from 7:30 in the morning till about 4:30 in the afternoon. They get about an hour for lunch, and it’s pretty much outside the entire morning and then we’re inside for the hottest part of the day, just to work on music.

“This is hard work,” he added. “And they have to realize that fairly quickly.”

Then the most difficult part of the season, according to Payton begins: the fun of getting over the hump. Students spend two weeks brushing up on marching fundamentals, learning and perfecting the proper techniques of marching fluidly in synchronization – step and time – with others in their sections and as a whole. They learn drill, a set of plotted coordinates on a football field that each student will memorize and travel from point to point – using those learned marching techniques – to assemble a show.

Oh, and of course they set it to music.

“This year we have four songs in our show,” Payton said. “My goal is to learn all of the spots on the show for the first song and for at least most of the second song, if not the whole second song. And then when we do our parent performance at the very end of our camp, do those two things, do everything we know that way, then maybe even stand and play some of our other stuff that we’re still working on.”

By the time students hit the field for the first football game halftime, usually the first public demonstration of the year’s show, students have put in countless hours of memorizing routines, music, incorporated choreography and effects. They rehearse three to four days a week after school when the year begins, in hopes of perfecting what they’ve learned to compete each Saturday against other high school bands in the state who have put in the same kind of work. It’s a different breed of competition than most, Payton said.

And it’s changed over the years, as well. Payton said technology has become a critical component of a marching band show in recent years, and the degree of difficulty has also increased. Few marching bands utilize traditional shows, he said, and while he couldn’t say for certainty that the change had been a good thing, it was necessary to keep up with competition.

“The show’s weren’t quite as involved back in those times,” Payton said. “Music, I played very, very difficult music in high school on the field, probably as difficult or more difficult than it is now. But we didn’t move around very much, and there wasn’t choreography and costuming and concepts and things like that that we kind of have to worry about today. So, the preparation aspect for the kids, probably for about the last 15-plus years, is a lot more involved. They have to start a little bit earlier with conditioning. Contrary to belief, marching band is really kind of a very physical activity. They have to go 10-plus minutes going full blast the entire time, and there’s not a whole lot of breaks in that. And carrying around a 40-pound tuba or a 40-pound drum, you know, that’s pretty demanding.”

This year’s show, “Haunted,” incorporates a fair number of those storytelling elements, Payton said.

“The shows are becoming more electronic,” he said. “The amount of, you know, electronics that we have in the show this year is not a terribly big amount, but it’s more than what we’ve used in the past. … More and more bands have started to incorporate that, and now it’s pretty much just a normal type situation. I wish it wasn’t, because there’s a lot of things that could go wrong. We did our state quarter-finals two years ago, and we had a lot of narration in our show. It downpoured on us, and we couldn’t use it, because we can’t take that electronic stuff out and get it ruined.”

The risk makes planning all the more crucial. “Haunted” should stand alone in an instance without the electronic components, Payton said, though the addition would make for more powerful storytelling.

It’s a show that could very well push students to the edge of their abilities, too, but one he said both students and those watching will find it an enjoyable show. And ultimately, Payton said it was more important to him that the kids enjoyed what they were doing than trophies brought in doing it.

“Ultimately, they’re still teenage kids, and they’re going to make mistakes,” he said. “… I don’t look at things on the competitive side now as much as I used to. I’m just more concerned about, hey, are the kids going to have a good time with this show? You know, are they going to get anything out of this show from a standpoint of them getting better? … That’s what I look most forward to is really kind of seeing the growth of how they’re going to go through the entire season. If we win contests throughout the course of the season, great. What I tell the kids in most cases is, ‘Hey if a band beats you, we can’t control that. It’s not like playing a basketball team where we can play defense on them. They’re going to go out there and do their thing. We’ve got to go out there and do our thing better.’”

Still, it takes a great deal of discipline both on and off the field. Students who wish to participate must maintain at least a 2.0 GPA according to school district guidelines. Those who don’t keep those grades in place become ineligible. Payton said it’s a policy he’s glad to see implemented.

“I’m glad that they focuson the academics with that,” Payton said. “That’s one of the big things that I tell the kids whenever they come complain to me that all the sudden they can’t come perform with us. I look at them and say, ‘Hey, your school work is more important than band right now. You need to focus on that.’”

Like many extracurriculars at the high school level, it’s not a cheap program to run. Marching season alone is a healthy expenditure, factoring in copyright costs for show music, travel and associated expenses – such as food for students and volunteers – props, equipment, color guard uniforms and flags. MCHS Band Booster President Susanne Meyer said the boosters pay anywhere from $15,000-$20,000 per season to support the organization. That money does not include funding from the Marshall County Board of Education, which Payton said typically funds larger expenditures and accounts for about 50 percent of annual spending.

Funds not provided from the school board come as the result of fundraising efforts and participation fees; however, no student is turned away due to inability to pay. Camp/Marching fees come to about $175 per student.

Payton says the Marshall County program is fortunate, as school board members don’t often balk at a request if he makes one. That combined with booster activity and frugal practices, like using volunteer labor to assist with show prop construction, helps keep program costs down. Others, he said, weren’t nearly as fortunate.

“There’s plenty of band directors, and plenty of band programs, that I’ve talked to that wish that they had the support that we did,” Payton said. “Not only support from them backing us like they do, but the financial support. … I wish we could make our band fees even lower than what they are, but it’s one of those where with the amount of things that we do, we could make the band fees fairly cheap, but the things that we provide to kids they just wouldn’t have it. We would be making the parents pay money for concessions for every single contest, you’d be paying for your hotel room and everything when we go to BOA (Bands of America); by the time you factor that stuff in, it would be what we charge the band right now. Probably even more. There’s bands that are out there that are like that, and their fees are just expensive, and it’s just because of the fact that they might not get quite the financial support that I get. Some of the big name programs, their band fees are thousands of dollars. … I just can’t imagine having to look someone in the eye and go, ‘Your band fees are $1,000,’ and them go, ‘I can’t afford that.’”

A solid booster program and support from local businesses were key to the program’s success. Meyer said while parent volunteers constructed sets and props, many of the critical elements were provided courtesy of business owners.

“Last year, we built our props and Calvert Lumber donated the wood,” Meyer said. “Polaris donated the Polaris (to haul percussion pit equipment) … a lot of people in the county help us and donate, but it still takes a lot of work and money.”

Boosters try to plan wisely for fundraising campaigns to avoid oversaturation and strain on parents, students and the public. The group has begun incorporating events such as car washes into its fundraising cycle. Fundraising chairwoman Rachael Shaw said boosters were always looking for new ideas to incorporate, as well.

“We’re doing a new thing this year with Ponderosa,” Shaw said. “We’re going to have these Ponderosa Advantage cards. They’re $20, and if you go to Ponderosa, you’ll have it for a year; it’s similar to the spirit cards, but it only has Ponderosa and it’s good at Draffenville and Paducah. … They’ll stamp it. Like, when you come in, you get $10 off, or, like if it’s 10 and below you’ll get a free meal. But you’ll get like one free meal per month. If you just use it twice, you’ll have your money back. It works out to be like a $240 savings for the whole year.”

Shaw said the savings roll over into the following month, as well, so those who might miss a month can redeem twice in the following month. Sales will begin for the Advantage cards Aug. 4.

The group continues its most well-known fundraising efforts throughout the year, also. In particular, Shaw said Quarter Note Club names would begin just after band camp this year. Students will generate names and addresses of individuals who might be interested in contributing, and boosters send letters asking for donations. Last year, the effort brought in more than $8,000, she said.

Fruit sales have also traditionally performed well, and Meyer said those sales would continue for the forseeable future. The band also joins a other groups in providing concessions during Hoop Fest, which she said brings a considerable sum into the organization’s coffers. Other efforts were a matter of trial and error, however.

The band hosts its own competition, as well, which generates funding for the group. Starfest brings area bands to compete each September at Carroll Traylor Stadium, though the Marching Marshals only perform in exhibition for the home competition. Boosters solicit advertising from local businesses on the festival program, as well as for trophies given out to participants. This year’s event will be held Saturday, Sept. 16.

“It’s a huge fundraiser for the band,” Shaw said. “It’s a lot of work. … Last year was tough, because we had several other band competitions, we had Barbecue on the River going on, track meet and soccer all at the same time. It was horrible. This year we’re hoping we won’t run into any, at least we won’t coincide with Barbecue on the River.”

Additional fundraisers for the group include a Meet the Marshals end of season event, which is usually includes a dinner and silent auction prior to an on-field band performance of the year’s show.

While contributions are important to the organization, Meyer said a show of community support was equally valuable to the group and, especially, the kids.

“Come out and watch them,” Meyer said. “Support them. Come out and be in the stands and cheer them on.”

The Marching Marshals will take the field in their first public performance of the year in a home football game Aug. 25 at MCHS. Competition will begin the following Saturday, Sept. 9 at McCracken County High School.

A tentative schedule of events can be found here. Fundraiser schedules can be found here as they become available.

For more information about the Marching Marshals program or to learn more about contributing, phone Meyer at 270-205-9864.