After a Long Absence, the Milton High Marching Band Returns to the Field

The Milton High School football team wasn't the only ones getting back on the playing field on Saturday night against Needham.

The school marching band, which last saw action in the mid-1980s, will be making its triumphant return with a pregame celebration and a halftime show after two decades off.

"I think what's nice about a marching band is that it's a community symbol," said co-director Gary Good. "It's something that gives us a sense of pride and tradition."

The band is still in the infant stages of its return, according to Good, and fans at home games can expect to see a pregame ceremony, where the football team will run through a tunnel created by the marching band. At halftime, the marching band, color guard and the cheerleading squad will team up to put on a show to the music of Lady Gaga.

Goode said he wasn't quite sure why the original band ceased to exist 20 or so years ago, but now he said he is seeing a tremendous amount of support from students and people around the town.

"I didn't expect the kids to be this excited," said Good.

He added: "The thing that I'm getting even more of is the people around the town are coming up to me and saying they can't wait to see it.  A lot of people are going to be going to a football game that haven't been to a football game in a long time."

Originally, Good wanted to go at this endeavor without the support of funding from the school, but now, after seeing the costs of equipment and instruments going up he said he might have to go that route at some point in the future.

Uniforms for the team cost $4,000 total, but many of the students are pitching in to buy the uniforms themselves, but he said the "kids were very excited" when they put the uniforms on for the first time.

Milton High School has a concert band, a symphonic band and a band that occasionally marches in parades, but according to Good most of the kids have never been a part of a unified marching band.

The musicians got started over the summer with practice for three hours a day a couple times a week, and the roughtly 65 to 70 participants are still getting used to the ins and outs of becoming a successful marching band.

"They are just getting started and that's the fun part," said Good. "Usually marching bands have the new freshman coming in, but we are starting from scratch, so everybody is learning how to do things together.

"We are very excited about it," he added, "but right now we are learning things so quickly that I think there is a little bit of let's hope this all works."

There may be plans in the future to join in some local competitions with other marching bands from around the state, but right now Good said they are happy to have a chance to be back on the field.

"Marching bands disappear but they don't often come back."

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