The West Marching Band this year is here to make a difference, to change things, and it shows. The seniors and many other students have leadership positions in the band. In Band there are two options for students seeking leadership positions: Section leader and Drum Major, Currently Lydia Palmer and Milagro (Millie) Gracia serve as Drum Majors for the 2024 season. Each summer drum majors and section leaders attend leadership camps, each a little different than the other.
The Section Leader camp is held here at West High, it is approximately seven hours in length. This is where students learn how to lead in ways that are effective and purposeful. Every year this camp gets high praise from all the section leaders where they learn the motto: Build Relationships, Encourage Others, and Ask For More. For the next two months, this motto will be their rule book as they attend weekly meetings, schedule and lead sectionals and bonding activities, and interact with their sectionmates on their day-to-day activities.
The Drum Major camp is a little different, this year Gracia and Palmer traveled to the campus of Eastern Illinois where they attended a 6-day clinic called the Smith Walbridge Clinic. The motto of this experience is to not only train great teachers, conductors, and leaders but to also create drum majors capable of serving as assistant band directors. This clinic requires positive attitudes, high energy, and a natural enthusiasm for their work. On a personal note, Gracia and Palmer represent this clinic and West Band very well on a daily, they continue to bring a positive attitude and are very consistent in communication which is a big deal to the current students in the band who have experienced relentless poor communication through not only directors and drum majors, the 2024 West High Drum Majors are here to change the narrative.
The first competition of the year that the band participates in is the Linn Mar Marching Band Festival, in 2021 the Marching Band had only one movement of their show on the field. In 2022 they had approximately one movement (A movement is a section of music, West High usually has three in all for their Marching Band shows) and half of the second. In 2023 they had the first two movements on the field, and this year they have almost all of their show on the field by the third home football game of the year and the first competition. The band’s tremendous strides did not happen on their own though so what was the change from last year to this year?
Drum Major, Gracia believes that due to the improved attitude, and commitment from section leaders it has been easier to keep the spirits of the band high. This has caused the band to complete their show weeks earlier than they have in previous years, due to this it has enabled the band to focus on the smaller things and prepare the show at a much higher level than before.
Not only have the students been hard at work this season but the parents have also worked tirelessly over the past four years to leave things better than how they found them when their kids were freshmen. The group of parents who work days on end to achieve this goal are (for the most part) the Band Booster’s Executive Team. The President of the Booster Team, Andrea Dellit has been focused on the systems incorporated into our band and how things flow in the big picture to make things flow smoothly. Parents such as Tasha Knight, Kendal, and Trisha Crawford. These four adults are the backbone of the marching band.
There are plenty of parents who show up hours before football games to make sure things run smoothly. They wake up at the crack of dawn for competition days and spend many hours shopping and coordinating how to make everything flow nicely. These four individuals work to create an environment for the band kids that is better than the day before. Between the band parents and the students each year the band has grown in potential and has created a safe environment for people to learn and grow.
This year the Section Leaders decided that since a majority of them were Seniors they decided that they needed to leave things here better than before. The Leadership Team’s efforts have not been in vain, all the hard work has earned them their highest score within the last four years of an 82 at the State Contest in Dubuque. Although the Wahawk Band’s Leadership team has worked hard over these past few months and it shows, they look forward to a wonderful year full of growth and fun. This year in Marching Band is a year to remember.
