Ready for halftime

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The high school football season in full swing;  so are the high school marching bands

With the return of high school football season also brings the return of marching band season. The sounds of the band throughout Friday nights adds an additional layer of excitement. 280 Living checked in with the band directors at the four schools in our coverage area about their upcoming seasons, halftime show plans and what they’re looking forward to this year.

Briarwood

► Band Director: Chris Neugent

► Show theme and songs: Our 2022 field show is titled “The Amazing Race” and features the songs “Eye of the Tiger,” “Titanium,” “Fight Song,” and “Amazing Grace.” Sports are often used as an analogy for life’s journey. Just like an athlete, we must train and discipline ourselves to prepare for the challenges we will encounter in life’s race to the finish. When we do encounter difficulties and begin to doubt God’s goodness and faithfulness, we must “keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” We hope our show will entertain and encourage others in their pursuit to say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

► Number of band members: 46

►Assistant Director and Percussion Coordinator: Chris Brown, Guard and Majorette Sponsor: Shelby Pilgrim

►Drum majors: Burton Collis and Abbey Waters

► What are you looking forward to this year? We are excited about the 2022-23 school year. Our fall marching and football season should prove to be exciting as we support Coach Matthew Forester’s Briarwood Lions varsity football team, look forward to competing in marching festivals, and participating in parades. The fall is always busy but very exciting for our band students.

►Did you win any awards won last year at competitions? Last year’s marching band competed in two local competitions. The bands earned Superior Ratings in all captions at both events and were named A/AA Grand Champions in the Trussville Marching Invitational.

Oak Mountain

► Band director: Kevin Ownby

► Show theme and songs: Our show is titled “Flight: Music That Soars” It features all sorts of music that has a tie-in with flying, including: “You Can Fly” from Peter Pan, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” from Mary Poppins, “Enterprising Young Men” from Star Trek, “Nimbus 2000” from Harry Potter, “I’ll Fly Away” and the “Top Gun Anthem.” We always look for music that our audience will recognize and connect with. Our goal is to find unique ways to tie these songs together to create an entertaining product for our audience.

► Number of band members: 231

► Associate director of bands: Dr. Travis Bender; Assistant Directors: Chanse Nelson and Zack Feldman

► Drum majors: Elly Mulder, Jake Dean, and Kayla Ownby

► What are you looking forward to this year? Since the school’s inception, the band program at Oak Mountain has consistently had the largest enrollment of any student activity on campus. We are proud to offer a variety of instrumental performances classes on campus, including three Concert Bands, two Jazz Bands, two Percussion Ensembles, Marching Band, Pep Band, and a variety of chamber ensembles. Of our band’s graduating class of 2022, over 90% will continue making music in college, many of whom have earned significant scholarship money doing so.

Our marching Band is a melting pot of all of our ensembles, allowing students in all grade levels and with a variety of skill sets to perform together as one unit. Our band program serves as a creative outlet for students during the school day, allowing them to express themselves through music, developing right-brain creative thinking, which is important in the development of young adults. All of our band students participate in Honors and/or AP level courses during the school day.

►Awards won last year at competitions: Grand Champions and 1st in Class - Hoover Marching Invitational 2021; Grand Champions and 1st in Class - Lake Martin Marching Invitational 2021; Grand Champions and 1st in Class - Pell City Marching Festival 2021.

Chelsea

► Director of Bands: Perry E. Lawley

► Show theme and songs: The show is named Road Trip. Tunes are “Life is a Highway,” “Shut Up and Drive,” “Highway 20 Ride” and “Vehicle.” We ask for student suggestions each year, and several students recommended Life is a Highway this year and last. I really like that tune and decided to try and use it as a basis for the whole show, and that’s how we ended up with a road-themed show.

► Number of band members: 163

► Associate director: Trace Johnson

► Drum majors: Emma Shaw, head drum major; Abby Johnson and Miles Lagman, assistant drum majors.

► What are you looking forward to this year? We are excited to present Road Trip this year to audiences around the state. I am highly indebted to our middle school band director, Deana Rizzo, for her tireless work with the students before they come to high school. I also want to highlight the terrific work done by our auxiliary groups — color guard, dance line and majorettes — whose routines add lots of flash and excitement to the overall show package. We are also grateful to welcome our first assistant director for the Chelsea Band in Trace Johnson. The assistant director role is a new unit for our school and he is making a huge difference in his short time with us.

Spain Park

► Band director: Craig Cagle

► Show theme and songs: Our competition show is titled “Dare to Dream.” We hope to take our audiences on a journey as we chase and achieve our dreams. Music includes “Dream On” by Aerosmith, “Defying Gravity” from Wicked, and “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman.

► Number of band members: 160

►Associate Directors: Richard Adams and Brian Wilson

► Drum majors: Emma Rose Gregory, Zoey Hewitt, and Lilia Sokol.

► What are you looking forward to this year? I enjoy working with students, seeing them reach their potential, and the joy on their faces during and after successful rehearsals and performances.

►Awards won last year at competitions: The Pride of the Park received superior ratings at all contests last year, and were selected as Grand Champions at the Tennessee Valley Invitational in Muscle Shoals in 2021.