The excitement was palpable in the band room at Meeker High School.
Students were sprawled out in one large group talking over each other and exhibiting energy that was surprising for how early in the morning it was.
A lot of it likely came from a man standing at the back, proudly surveying the room whilst donning an American flag kilt.
“We cleared 40 this year at 42, and I was trying to look through some old yearbooks in the Supt’s office, which I believe is the first time that we’ve had more than 40 since like 1999 or like 2000, something like that,” said Band Director Tony Thoma, referring to their numbers. He’s currently in his third year as the director and he’s definitely faced some growing pains. Last year,thebandwaspredomi- nately new and young, with eighth graders and freshman outnumbering upperclassmen. This year, things are starting to even out a bit..
“We’re not fighting for rhythms anymore. We can, you know, we’re moving forward because, and it’s more just the kids are just getting older, and so naturally it helps the progression of music learning and music making,” he said. “That sophomore class is coming into their own and they’re starting to hear that, oh, I don’t have to count a rhythm to understand it. I can just look at it and I immediately know what it is.”
Thoma is excited to see what this season brings for the band. They’re doing a patriotic themed program, called “Red, White, and Tunes.” In the past, they went to competitions mostly for experience, but this year he hopes to start seeing better scores.
“Definitely still considered this a building year, but I would say that we’re going to start seeing the scores that we want to see or at least closer,” he said.
Senior Mylee Washburn said she’s excited and feels like they’re going to see a lot of growth.
“We did good last year, but I feel like this year is going to be some major improvements. We have a lot more people,” she said.
Kallie Ailey, also a senior, said she’s looking forward to competitions.
“There’s so many nice people, and you get to do so many things, and the way they’re just so much fun,” she said. Mylee added to that, saying that while they’re focused on winning, they also focused on making new memories.
Drum Major Holly Turner said she’s looking forward to seeing how the newest members do. Meeker has more than 12 eighth graders this year.
“I’m excited for all the eighth graders coming in. We have a lot of really good members. They’re improving so much over the past four days,” she said. One of those is Jett Newport, who is eager to see how the band grows.
“It’s cool to watch the improvement throughout the year like you start out as a brand new music no one knows how to play it. You start playing and it sounds terrible, but throughout the year it just improves and it sounds a lot better than like anything,” he said.
Stroud High School’s marching band is also looking at a growing year. Director Kevin Couch said they have a young group with only three seniors and two juniors. The rest are sophomores, freshmen, and several are eighth graders and marching for the first time.
This is his fourth year with the program and for the last few years, he’s been working to change the culture of the marching band.
“Whattheywereusedtowasnotreallydoingawholelot, and now we’re doing things that marching bands should do, that concert bands should do, and they’re playing well and there’s some solid fundamentals, so we’re going to keep working on our fundamentals,” he said. “Our focus this year is going to be just to solidify and kind of become a closer knit group than what we’ve been.”
Couch commended the effort that his students have been putting in, saying that not many realize just how hard they work.
“These kids, they’re out here in the heat, and they’re working and carrying those instruments around like that and playing. That’s just a lot of physical activity that people just don’t really consider.
“So yeah, they’re out here doing it just like every other athletic team,” he said.
The group is taking on a fun theme for their marching program -- Alien Invasion, written by Luke McMillan, who specializes in pieces for smaller bands. Couch will be doing the drill writing himself.
Drum major, senior Alyssa McNair, said they have a lot of good ideas for the program. She’s nervous about being drum major, but optimistic about this year and getting to know the newer members.
“I hope I can develop friendships and relationships with these kids. They’re all pretty young,” she said. “A lot of kids in here, I mean, there’s quite a few I can pick out that are really good leaders. And I know that I’m leaving here, but they’re gonna have, like, they’re in good hands.”