Willoughby South High School Marching Band
Update 15, Week of September 9, 2024
Attention Parents: There will always be a parent directed message at the end of these updates
Hello Everyone,
Well, I hope everyone got a chance to dry out a bit. For someone who has done this for a while, that has to rank up there as one of the most wet Friday nights ever. My feet were soaked through within 10 seconds of leaving the building. Thank you to Mr. Suttell for granting me permission to make the decision best for the group. While it would have been nice to get III out there (which for only being game 3, that is fantastic progress), I’d rather make sure the equipment doesn’t get ruined and you don’t get medically ruined. I also want to thank you guys for how you handled everything, you went with the hand we were dealt, you did what you were asked, and did so without a “boatload” (couldn’t resist the truly awful pun) of complaining. Next week we debut III at Lake Catholic and start to learn IV.
Monday Morning: Please come down BEFORE home room to help put away equipment and make the room usable for 1°.
I WILL LET YOU IN THROUGH DOOR 49 TO HELP!!!
PLEASE BE SURE THE DOTS TO IV ARE WRITTEN IN TO YOUR DOT BOOK FOR TUESDAY’S REHEARSAL
If you were not at the Friday rehearsal, get your dots from your section leader, BEFORE Tuesday.
SECOND CAMP FEE, UNIFORM FEES: Almost DONE with this!!! Many of you have already paid both camp fees and THANK YOU for that. I’m a huge fan of LESS paperwork. Band Camp Fee 2: Was due August 7 (Winds $75, Color Guard $125, Percussion $115). Student accounts have been posted. We are still waiting on parent hours from the car washes and have not yet been paid from the Lake County Fair yet. I WOULD REALLY LIKE to get this wrapped up this week if we can. Uniform Fees: Are due September 18. |
Pass Offs This Week
I and II must be passed this week for you to be able to perform on Friday night at Lake. Get it taken care of!!! Pass offs will be heard Wednesday and Thursday after rehearsal.
ULTIMATE RAFFLE TICKETS
Please, get those remaining tickets sold and turned in to me by the end of this week! If anyone needs additional tickets, please ask!
THIS WEEK: Week of September 9 , 2024 FIELD SET / ROOM CLEAN THIS WEEK: Flutes, Mellos PERFORMANCES: Friday: Lake Catholic @ Mentor High School (A) PASSOFF: Tuesday & Wednesday: Make Up Passoffs, Comp I, II, III GOALS FOR THIS WEEK: MUSICAL: Learn Comp IV, refine I, II and III MARCHING: Continue to improve timing, FM and BM technique and shoulders on laterals. Work on ½ time marching, turn while moving and the jazz run technique. DRILL: Learn Comp IV, Comp I, II & III continued refinement Monday 9/9: No Band Events Scheduled Tuesday 9/10: 3:15-5:00 Full Band Rehearsal 5:15-6:00 Winds Sectional Pass Offs: Make ups. Wednesday 9/11: 3:15-5:30 Full Band Rehearsal IN THE STADIUM 5:30-7:30 Percussion Sectional Pass Offs: Make ups Band Boosters Meeting, 7:00 Thursday 9/12: 3:15-5:30 Full Band Rehearsal 6:00-9:00 Color Guard Sectional Friday 9/13: 7:15 am Rah Rah Marching Band Performance, Lake Catholic @ Mentor H.S. (A) 4:00 Here 10:30 Done Saturday 9/14: Band Boosters Reverse Tag Day, Info TBA Uniform Committee Bingo, students arrive at 10:00 pm |
NEXT WEEK: Week of September 16, 2024 Monday 9/16: No Band Events Scheduled Tuesday 9/17: 3:15-5:00 Full Band Rehearsal 5:15-6:00 Winds Sectional Pass Offs: Competition Show Movement III and make ups. Wednesday 9/18: 3:15-5:30 Full Band Rehearsal 5:30-7:30 Percussion Sectional Band Boosters Meeting, 7:00 Thursday 9/19: 3:15-5:30 Full Band Rehearsal 6:00-9:00 Color Guard Sectional Friday 9/20: 4:30 am, uniforms for Channel 3 Performance, details to be announced as they become available. 7:15 am Rah Rah Marching Band Performance, Lorain (H) 4:45 Here 10:00 Done Saturday 9/21: No Band Events Scheduled |
10 REHEARSALS UNTIL THE AVON LAKE COMPETITION!!! It’s getting close…
Important Bullet Point Updates:
PLAN YOUR WEEK and KEEP UP WITH YOUR SCHOOL WORK. Don’t CHOOSE to fall behind, this will only add unnecessary stress to your life! If you find yourself having problems keeping yourself organized,PLEASE SEE ME, I will be happy to sit down with you and help you with some potential strategies. THE KEY IS PLANNING AHEAD!.
Make sure you continue to bring your water jugs to school. THINGS WILL BE HOT FOR AT LEAST A MONTH. Be prepared with water and sunscreen so that we can continue to improve. You may keep them in practice room E during the school day. You should continue to bring sunscreen as well.
PLEASE NOTE, the week of the Avon Lake Competition, WE WILL BE REHEARSING ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 from 3:15-5:30. This scheduled rehearsal is one of only 2 Mondays that we will rehearse (the other would be the Monday of State Week, pending qualification. DO NOT come up to me and say you didn’t know…
While our immediate future will be hot, we are very close to the weather beginning to change. I would encourage you to keep a “I just got soaked” outfit and a set of warm clothes at school for that day when the temperature is 70° when you leave your home in the morning and 40° when we head to rehearsal. Trust me, IT WILL HAPPEN, be prepared for it! Rehearsal will not be canceled due to cold temperatures.
FUNDRAISER HELP NEEDED THIS WEEKEND!!!!!
This weekend, we have three fundraisers going on that NEED for you to do YOUR PART to help to continue to fund YOUR PROGRAM.
Reverse Band Camp: Saturday from 7:30 (uniforms) to Noon, WES Point Park, roving performing group.
Reverse Band Camp: Saturday from 7:30 (uniforms) to Noon, WES Point Park, collectors
Bingo Clean Up: 10:00pm, WMS Cafeteria
PLEASE sign up in the band room so that we can get all positions covered. You will shortly read in this update about the uniform fundraiser, run by current and former band parents and attended by current, former and NEVER band parents to help earn money for YOUR uniforms. The amount of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on to pull off this event is tremendous. The least you can do to help YOUR program is to do YOUR part. Please sign up.
YOUR STUFF, IT IS BECOMING UNMANAGEABLE…
When I came in this morning, I expected the room to be a disaster area, and my expectations were met! However, the amount of personal items (clothes, water bottles, chargers, books, etc.) being left behind is borderline ridiculous. Folks, I need for you to be responsible for your own stuff and please stop leaving it laying around the room. I will begin to throw stuff away, we just don’t have the space for a huge pile of lost and found. Let’s avoid the lost, then the found part becomes irrelevant.
Reverse Raffle Uniform Fundraiser: THANK YOU!!!
A HUGE THANK YOU to the new uniform committee for setting up such a wonderful event and thank you to everyone who attended and spent maybe a little more money than planned on a whole boatload (there he goes again with the puns) of wonderful prizes. It is too soon to announce how much was made towards the cost of the new uniforms, but in excess of $10,000 is very likely. This will get us considerably closer to making that November deposit. We are not yet there, but my confidence in this purchase happening is growing by the day.
Post-Performance in the Band Room, we NEED your help…
Following a performance, the band room becomes a very crowded and very busy place. In an effort to keep things manageable and moving in the room, I am going to request that the only people that should be in the band room should be band members, staff, pit crew, uniform committee and the chaperones. That alone is close to 130 people, all with tasks to do. It just gets too crazy when we have friends and family members also filling up the space. Thank you for your cooperation with this.
Competition day schedules…
I have received a number of questions regarding the timing of the 4 competition days. Unfortunately, I can not establish actual itineraries until I receive schedules from the contest site hosts. Those are typically released a week or 2 before the contest date. Suffice it to say, they will be long days. GENERALLY speaking, the days will go like this…
Avon Lake, Norton: Evening performances
Color Guard & Percussion: Mid morning arrival (maybe 9:00)
Full Band Rehearsal: Late Morning arrival. Will include rehearsal, feeding, uniforms and equipment loading. We then
need to travel to the site (roughly an hour), unload and warm up.
Performance: Typically early evening (between 5:00-7:00), load back up, watch a couple of performances, awards ceremony, travel back, turn in uniforms and unload.
End of day: Typically 10:00 or so
Brunswick: Afternoon performance
They have moved this competition to an afternoon event. We have not really done many events in the afternoon, so this is going to be new to me. My best guess would be that color guard and percussion will arrive no earlier than 8:00, and I believe the rest of the schedule will be similar to the evening performances, but all times maybe 3 hours earlier.
State: Morning? Afternoon? Evening Performance?
This performance can be anytime during the day. Time table would be similar. My advice would be for the students to just BE AVAILABLE for the entire day.
Sorry I can’t be more specific on these times, but AS SOON AS I KNOW, I will get an update out to everyone!
HOME GAME FOOTBALL TICKETS
If you are interested in attending one of our HOME games, you can order your tickets by going to the site below:I believe that they do NOT sell tickets at the gate, so you will need to order tickets here. For AWAY GAMES, I will send out the link once I receive it from athletics.
Any questions about anything marching band, please email me at [email protected]. Have a great week everyone!
FP