It was Senior Night for football players, cheerleaders, marching band members, and the entire spirit crew at Annandale (Va.) High School on Nov 8, just inside the Washington beltway. But a few minutes into the marching band’s halftime show, the head football coach came screaming onto the field to shoo the band off. This action brought shame onto the school and has drawn hundreds of comments from across the country in the Washington Post, mostly from supporters of the marching band.
An editorial in the school’s newspaper, The A-Blast, reported that fans started screaming, “Get the damn band off the field,” and similar imperatives. Coach Mike Scott reportedly “resorted to his own measures by shaking the podium of (one) assistant drum major … and then yelling at the other assistant drum major … to stop conducting and get off the field.”
When a football coach shakes one of those flimsy drum major platforms with a kid standing on it, I suppose the band has no choice but to stop playing and do whatever he tells them to do. And that’s what happened, but there’s another side.
The team, whose members were also celebrating a senior night of their own, was losing by more than 20 points. They faced a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct if the band didn’t clear the field, though it was unreported as to whether the penalty would have been enforced, given the typical leniency seen around the country about the length of halftime for special events, like Homecoming and Senior Night.
Those are about the only facts I can discern from the editorial, except that I know Annandale lost the football game 55-14, after being down 35-7 at the halftime, and finished the season 1-9.
The marching band, on the other hand, received a final rating of “Superior” (the highest mark) at the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association marching band assessment on Oct 19, held at Pulaski County High School in Dublin (video). And on Nov 2, the weekend before the senior night embarrassment, the Marching Atoms received first place in the Open Class (group III), as well as trophies for best music and best visual performance at the US Bands Mid-Atlantic States Championships in Annapolis, Md.
The band’s show is entitled “Music of the Night” and features the music of JS Bach (“Toccata and Fugue in d minor”) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (“Music of the Night” and “Masquerade,” both from Phantom of the Opera). Just as the band started “Music of the Night,” this whole sequence of events went down. Right along with the national reputation of this school.
Editorial
Not much to say about this. Just a suggestion.
The football team gets the support of the entire band as a group at every home football game, despite the fact that the band obviously has other goals and performances of its own to work toward. When I spoke with some band parents last month out at Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colo., who have a string of state championships themselves, those parents told me that the entire football team assembles as a group to attend at least one band concert during the school year.
I’m sure the coach, principal, superintendent, and a whole host of other people are going to send their apologies in words to this fine marching unit. But actions speak louder than words, and what marching bands really need is applause. How would it be if the entire football team, on behalf of their coach, went to a band concert and supported their fellow students, returning the support shown to the football team during the football season? Just imagine!