Marching Band
Rehearsals:
Tuesdays 6-8PM
Thursdays 6-9PM
What is Marching Band?
The Marching Band is a fun way to complete the musical experience at San Juan Hills. It is a non-competitive group, meaning we focus on a halftime show and pep tunes for football games. We pick crowd-friendly music, and focus on making this a fun, enjoyable experience for both the musicians and the student body. Don’t let non-competitive fool you, though. Even though our focus is football games, for students wanting to join a more intensive experience through DCI or college marching bands, students learn all the skills relating to marching and drill that these groups year. We’ve had many students move forward in those venues, and have even had students serve as drum majors at their universities.
Marching Band meets Tuesday’s from 6-8PM (music) and Thursdays from 6-9 (drill) through the football season (to late October/early November). We meet in the evenings so students with sports conflicts can usually participate. We play for all home football games as well as some select away games. We also play at all CIF playoff games.
Marching band complements the ‘core’ music classes (concert band, wind ensemble, all string orchestras). Because the main goal is performance, and not the entirety of the state framework in music education, students must be enrolled in a core music class in order to participate in marching band. However, students receive PE credit for doing marching band. That means that students not doing a sport can drop their PE class during the 0-6 school day, which opens up a period for students to take the core music classes. Students taking a sport may still have an open spot depending on their schedule, but can also take a 0 period to guarantee space.
We have MANY students from the orchestras in the marching band. There are no auditions, and many orchestra students find success in the drumline. Some also learn a new wind instrument. Beginners are welcome in marching band. Because it’s the only ensemble where ALL band members are present at the same time, Freshmen and beginning students improve rapidly because they have older students in their section. Students in the marching band tend to be more involved, have the most fun, improve the fastest, and create a greater connection to the whole school. We greatly encourage all band and orchestra students to participate in the marching band.
Why don’t we compete?
This is a question that get’s asked from time to time, and I’m happy to discuss is with anyone who asks, but here’s the history behind it……
I first taught at Aliso Niguel High School, and I inherited a 2 year old marching band program and started a colorguard and drumline program from scratch. We had a typical large staff and operating budget. the competed in the Western Band Association, and withing 5 years, we were winning sweepstakes trophies at every tournament for the AAA division (80-100 members), and at our height, we won several WGI regionals with our colorguard, a WGASC championship, a bronze medal at the WGI championships in Ohio, and the drumline finished 4th at WGI championships as well. It was a highly successful competitive program. I say this not to boast, but so that people know that I understand the competitive world, and I know how to be successful in it if we chose to go that route. So, why don’t we?
As much as I enjoyed the competitive side of the marching band, colorguard, and drumline program, it took a toll on our resources - time, energy, and of course, money! We were running a 6 figure budget, but the marching program took the lion share of the resources. When I wanted to get section coaches or purchase an English Horn, the budget wasn’t in there because we had to pay a marching tech or a dance coach, or a cologuard costume. The colorguard and drumline program were especially expensive and couldn’t run with the money brought in from their participants, so any money from the instrumentalists would go to fund those programs. All of these programs are great, but they are very difficult to maintain by ourselves. We get no funding from the district - uniforms (including marching band), instructors, props, flags, etc. are 100% on us. I was painted into a corner at Aliso financially, and we couldn’t fund what is supposed to be our top priority - music education. When starting San Juan Hills, I had every intention to compete with all 3 groups with 1 stipulation - we will only grow the competitive program as the funding allow us to prioritize the concert groups.
2 major policy shifts happened the year between me moving from Aliso Niguel to starting San Juan Hills (2007). First, there was a landmark lawsuit regarding how school groups could ask for funds. They weren’t new, and we followed them at Aliso. Students get full access to the program even if they can’t/don’t pay, but we didn’t advertise that like we do now. We would push hard on donations and would receive 90-100% participation. Currently (and this is similar with the other CUSD schools), we’re closer to 50%. Also, CIF changed their practice policies. It used to be that there were heavy practice restrictions on off-season sports. They lifted all restrictions. Back then, a baseball player could do marching band in the fall and baseball in the spring without missing anything. Now, a student has to miss a semester of offseason workouts for a sport they’re trying out for if they want to do marching band. 1 more thing - our school started with Freshmen only, so there was no one used to the high donation asks and Saturday commitments both in the Fall AND Spring.
As a result, when we started to build our program, the CIF change made it harder to recruit, and the funding was very light. I had some of my Aliso coaches come help me get started for very little pay, and we actually got off to a decent start. We had a colorgaurd, we competed with our 30 person marching band in our 2nd year with only Freshmen and Sophomores (and did pretty well), but things like costumes, props, flags, etc. were paid for with school startup funds. Once those dried up, we were on our own. By our 4th year, we had a 15 member colorguard, but few could/would donate. The marching band still balked at Saturday rehearsals and competitions, and the drumline enjoyed the concert playing more than the competitions in the Spring. We were getting back to where I was at Aliso where to feed the competitive programs, we would have to sacrifice things like instrument purchase and repair, section coaches, music purchase, etc.
I had a long talk with my principal at the time. The colorguard especially was underwater financially and he asked if we needed to have one. It was a tough questions. I met my wife when I was in marching band and she was in colorguard, and I build a nationally recognized program at Aliso, but the funding just wasn’t sustainable. I answered, ‘we need a colorguard to compete.’ His answer was, ‘do you need to compete.’ It’s not really a thought I had, but at the time, the kids LOVED the football game (in highly competitive programs, they tolerate them, but really care most about the competitions). Our pincipal love our vibe at the football games, and asked if my studnets were enjoying the program as much as they were when we were competing. Honestly, our group was enjoying the football games more, and it was the time and financial strains that were causing students to not participate. We stopped the colorguard program and moved to a concert percussion ensemble in the Spring. We nearly doubled our numbers the next year. The kids LOVED that we were learning more pep tunes, and our shows were more on the ‘fun’ side that we really can’t do when we compete.
The time, energy, and financial needs of the marching program was (and still is) in sync with the needs/desires of the community. We have a financial ask at the beginning of the year which is much more modest than schools with a competitive program, and the stress on the kids and families is a lot less since we’re not always trying to sell 1 more candy bar! As a result, we do a lot more on the concert side of things than most schools. We have a Fall concert that includes our band! Our concert band is completely separate. At many schools, the concert band learns the marching band show (including those not enrolled in marcing band) for the entire 1st semester and maybe play some holiday tunes in December. We run 2 musicals per year with often 60+ students participating. This is unprecedented. We have large participation in honor groups, and we run a 3 day music festival. We are every bit as busy as any high school program, but in different ways, which I feel meets meets more musical standards. Basically, we run the entire marching program with me writing the drill and teaching the drill at no cost (this is a $30-$40K expense at most schools), we have a blast at football games (which the students truly enjoy being a part of the school), and we run a highly successful concert program. Studnets less stressed, and I genuinely believe enjoy more than when I was at my competive height. This isn’t to diminish school that choose to compete. If they have the resources, that’s great, but what we do here at San Juan Hills works with us, and I am thrilled with the balance we have been able to enjoy.