Rockville High School Senior Diary: Through the Eyes of the Band

Football season is rapidly coming to a close. The boys have worked hard all season to improve their game, on and off the field. The cheerleaders have finally learned what a touchdown is, and the parents are just glad that they don’t have to sit, frozen to the bleachers, bundled up like an eskimo. But there is one group at the football games that people tend to forget about until half-time.

The super cool, really popular, high school marching band.

They sit, or stand if the home team doesn’t score within the first half, so they stand, cheering on the boys while simultaneously trying to keep their instruments warm before they play the next pump-up song to lift everyone’s spirits.

The Rockville High School Marching Band, as small as it is, can still get a crowd excited. That is, if the crowd is 40 year-old band parents who secretly just wish their kids were playing an indoor sport.

Many students in the student section of the bleachers could care less about the band, which in all honesty is quite sad seeing as through the marching band is one of the only award-winning teams at Rockville High School.

This is not an article bashing the students, or a telling article to get sympathy for the band, but as a member of the band myself, I thought it would be interesting for everyone to see what it is really like in the day in the life of a band geek.

Football game days normally start around 2:30, when all of the band kids start making their way up the hill from Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts with their iced coffee and foot longs to snack on on the way up to rehearsal.

When rehearsal starts promptly at 3 p.m, the band can be heard trying to see who can play the highest note on their instrument as they walk to the practice field. The piccolo normally wins that competition.

After stretches, it’s time to rehearse and then dinner is at 5:00 with some much needed greasy pizza, cookies, and soda. The laughter rings through the hall, and students hanging out in the senior lounge finally figure out where the library and band room is.

Getting a free pass to the football game is easy on the wallet, but it does not come without some hard work.

Rehearsals are long and sometimes tedious. With repetition after repetition, “repetition is our friend,” is the motto of the band.

Like all of the other teenagers in the stand, the band enjoys watching the football game just as much as everyone else, but not many of them do. It is the same thing every time:

The boys have a shot, then they fumble the ball.

Many of the band kids think that they could play better than the football players. They sit in the stands, coaching the boys, as if they were listening to anyone anyway.

But there are also those who, like the cheerleaders, who know nothing about football. They converse the night away, only paying attention when they have to play the fight song when the boys score.

Before this year, it was rare that the band had to play, but a few times, they have been caught in the middle of warming up for the show and they have to play the fight song from memory. It was almost as sad as the Rams’ performance against Tolland last week.

Up until this year, the football team was seen as almost a joke. Football games were just practice for the band for their real competitions the next day. Now, the games are more enjoyable with good food, a good game, and great music.

Photo credit: Kathy Witkun