Annabelle van Hemert
The band waited in the tunnel, the atmosphere bristling with excitement and jangled nerves.
Someone tapped twice on the brim of a friend’s shako, the marching band hat, for good luck. That started a chain reaction; band members wanted all the luck they could get. The crowd cheered from inside the stadium. A beat started to lead the other band off the field, in time. Slowly, the new band moved out into the lighted stadium. The prop team raced to set up the smoke stacks in the back of the field and gears in the front. The band marched onto the field, clumped together for a quick pep talk from their director, and hurried to their dots, their placements on the field.
The Mechanicsburg Area Senior High Marching Band would place third in the USBands Nationals Competition. Preparation for the show, “The Factory,” started at the beginning of the summer. Since the beginning of the year, the director and leaders worked on the drill, the formations of the band during the show, and the music. During band camp, an extensive two-week camp, the band worked hard to learn as much drill, flag work and music as possible.
The color guard congregated out on the field, spinning their flags, racing to get to their dots, the girls, tired and sweaty, still managing to yell out an “and we’re loving it!” toward Kristy Templin, the color guard instructor. The pit squeezed together for warm ups, playing their scales faster and faster, building up callouses on their hands. The drum line practiced not far from the pit, their rhythms echoing throughout the small town of Mechanicsburg.
Jim Weaver, the percussion director, jumped between the two sections to keep them on track. The winds stood together in two arcs, playing their own set of warm-ups, trying to tune the flutes, piccolo and saxophones. William Stowman, a Messiah College music professor, led the band. Ben Goldsborough, the band director, hung out with the winds and could be seen enthusiastically jumping up and down to get the band to play louder at the crescendos.
The band got used to winning that season. Its hard work paid off in the end, winning every competition up until Nationals. The week before Nationals, the band won first place at the Atlantic Coast Championships with a score of 97.70 and earned awards for high music, auxiliary, visual, percussion and brass.
When asking Greg Hutchison, a Lower Dauphin band director, about performing as a high schooler in his marching band, he said, “I had an incredible marching band in high school. I went to Red Land and was a part of their band when they won three Atlantic Coast Championships in four years. Performances were great because we were taught to take so much pride in what we did.”
Mechanicsburg students feel the same way. Leaving the field after the Nationals performance, the band gathered together to rate their individual performances and talk about what would happen next. As soon as everyone gathered together, Goldsborough shouted, “MECHANICSBURG, HOW DO YOU FEEL?” The band yelled a collective “HOOHAH, FEEL GOOD,” in response.
Tournament of Bands (TOB), a competitive band organization founded in 1972 by the National Judges Association for high school marching band competitions, grew from 18 bands performing in the Atlantic Coast Championships to more than 400 schools that participate in competitions in 13 states.
The Mechanicsburg Area Senior High Marching Band performed with USBands for the first time for Nationals. USBands started in 1988, by the Cadets, to allow high school bands to perform in advanced competitions with top judges.
The Cadets, the founders of USBands, started as a program for boys in a church parish in the 1930s. In 1940, they won the American Legion Junior National Championship. They broke away from the parish in 1958, began their own organization, and placed second in Legion Nationals. The Cadets proceeded to become World Class Champions throughout the years.
USBands judge in a more difficult way than TOB, So, that morning, Mechanicsburg borrowed Cresskill High School’s football field to practice and perfect the details. The band arrived at the field in the morning and got right to work. The color guard took over the field. The drummers went their own way. The pit set up at the front of the field. The band went over to an open air to work on music and marching techniques, practicing until lunchtime, with a break for subs and chips. Then, they came out and worked some more. They gathered all together for group ensemble time, where every section practiced the show together to make sure everything fit together.
The band members nearly sprinted to their dots. The color guard ran around them, simultaneously waving and tossing their flags and rifles. The drumline, avoiding any collisions with the band members, crab stepped, a march that requires crossing one leg over the other, and yelled out the garbled phrases they use to remember what to do. The pit, using all its instruments, focused on keeping perfect time.
Judges used a 100-point system when judging a band’s show. They raced around the band members, glorifying the good components, catching the meaning behind the show, but pointing out feet not marching in time, bad technique and weak crescendos. They look for dropped flags and rifles in the color guard.
Sound touched silence. The beat moved faster. The last notes of the song ended together in a tired, but triumphant manner. The band exited the field.
The band director stood in the middle of the group, completely surrounded by sweaty, out-of-breath teens. He asked if any of them scored their individual performance less than a five. No one raised their hands. Six? Same response. Seven? None. Eight? A couple hands popped up in the air. Nine? More hands. Ten? Everyone else raised their hands, proud of their hard work.
The band hurried to the buses to put away the instruments and returned to the stadium for awards. The seniors are sent out before the ceremony to prepare to collect the awards. The rest of the group headed to the stands. They waited group by group, until they heard Group IV Open Class’s awards. The members linked arms, completely silent as they waited to hear the scores. Third place: Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School Marching Band. Cheers and screams erupted, but the band quickly quieted down to applaud the rest of the bands. Pride took over, knowing they earned and deserved this moment.
