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When did halftime get hijacked?


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I know this is not necessarily about world class drum corps, but it is the group on here I interact with the most.

When did it become a thing for their to be presentations, or honoring players who were the back-up punter from 1963's district 5th place team? Tomorrow night will be the second time this season, and 7th time in the last 3 years, that my band cannot do halftime due to one of these ridiculous presentations. It's not at my school this time, but that did happen earlier this season. Why don;t they do these things before the game, in between quarters, or after the bands are done at halftime. My group always plays their part, and supports the team every Friday night, win or lose, but then to not be able to perform, ridiculous. 

Thoughts? Anyone else having these issues, or is this just happening around my area?

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My kiddo's school is in a district that encompasses the area slightly north and east of San Antonio, and they've gotten into a pretty good groove of doing those sorts of things before the game.  Last year even our homecoming ceremony was a pregame, which was both novel in my experience and *really* cool. 

(One year, long ago, my historically bad HS team got good for one season and we ruined like 8 homecomings that overconfident teams scheduled against us.  We were just mad we never got to see the other bands perform their real shows.)

Mike

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9 minutes ago, ibexpercussion said:

I know this is not necessarily about world class drum corps, but it is the group on here I interact with the most.

When did it become a thing for their to be presentations, or honoring players who were the back-up punter from 1963's district 5th place team? Tomorrow night will be the second time this season, and 7th time in the last 3 years, that my band cannot do halftime due to one of these ridiculous presentations. It's not at my school this time, but that did happen earlier this season. Why don;t they do these things before the game, in between quarters, or after the bands are done at halftime. My group always plays their part, and supports the team every Friday night, win or lose, but then to not be able to perform, ridiculous. 

Thoughts? Anyone else having these issues, or is this just happening around my area?

In my area, bands only perform at home games if at all. In several parts of the country football isn't the cult that it is in Texas and the South. For instance, there are some schools without football teams, so the bands play between periods for soccer matches, field hockey, or do no sports performances what so ever; I know that was true for Blackstone-Millville whose band was always super competitive and successful up USSBA and NESBA way; don't know whether they now have a football team or not. One size does not fit all. In some parts of the country, the schools aren't the mammoth factories some have, so band members and football players may be the same persons. Talk about costume changes.

Edited by xandandl
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My high school is located in SEC country, and it has been the practice since I've worked here, that both bands perform, unless it is another school's homecoming, and we get bumped (which is understandable, not desirable, but understandable). At our school we do homecoming "festivities" before the game, and then the band(s) do halftime.

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2 minutes ago, ibexpercussion said:

My high school is located in SEC country, and it has been the practice since I've worked here, that both bands perform, unless it is another school's homecoming, and we get bumped (which is understandable, not desirable, but understandable). At our school we do homecoming "festivities" before the game, and then the band(s) do halftime.

Your original post and the above post leads me to wonder what is the process of administrative communication among the school admins (principals, housemasters, deans of cocurricular activities), band administrative leaders, and athletic directors and football coaches. In excellently run schools and programs, there is a pre-season sit down meeting with all three sides of the triangle present, each game and performance is looked at from a scheduling and horarium viewpornt, and surprises are only for emergency situations. NEVER should the bandmaster allow his program to be sucker punched by someone "forgetting to mention to you" that you aren't performing tonight. Around here, coaches, pta presidents, and principals who do that can be brought up for professional review with the teachers union usually backing the victimized.

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Basically since our activity doesn't end in ball, we aren't granted a "seat at the table." When we go to the admin with concerns, or questions, about when different things may go on during halftime, etc., we are told  nothing, ahead of time, and afterwards that we need to be good supporters of the entire community. They recently tried to make homecoming during halftime, but when one of the class reunions (20 year I believe) that was going to be at the game found out, they called the admin(s) and complained. Then it got moved back to pre-game. The admin will cave to parental or community pressure, but will not even allows us to have a civil, and respectful discourse with all involved parties to be on the same page. Maybe if we start calling ourselves "Marching Band-ball" we'll get more respect.

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24 minutes ago, ibexpercussion said:

Basically since our activity doesn't end in ball, we aren't granted a "seat at the table." When we go to the admin with concerns, or questions, about when different things may go on during halftime, etc., we are told  nothing, ahead of time, and afterwards that we need to be good supporters of the entire community. They recently tried to make homecoming during halftime, but when one of the class reunions (20 year I believe) that was going to be at the game found out, they called the admin(s) and complained. Then it got moved back to pre-game. The admin will cave to parental or community pressure, but will not even allows us to have a civil, and respectful discourse with all involved parties to be on the same page. Maybe if we start calling ourselves "Marching Band-ball" we'll get more respect.

Is your school to be reviewed soon for renewing State Education re-accreditation or regional accreditation such as Middle States, New England States, Atlantic, Gulf Coast or a number of subsets whose standards mean a lot to colleges accepting future students? http://www.msche.org/ I've sat on some of the reviewing boards from each side of the table and know that when a criticism of failure to communicate between departments or between school admin and departments is raised, the echoes of such criticisms are heard fff by such accreditors. Reminding the ad min and school boards that the co-curricular co-operative interplay among departments scores highly with such accreditors who do look at the number of students involved in each program and the faculty rankings for those same programs becomes quite influential. Unfortunately, techs and noobie teachers don't get to be heard as loudly as program directors and department heads. But here even the fly gets noticed.

Now I admit that my Dad was a school district athletic director for 40 years who coached several students who made the professional leagues. But besides Dad playing in the very first NCAA basketball Final Four (for Villanova) and professional baseball for the then NY Giants until WWII broke out, he also played the violin and got his Ph.D. at NYU. My Dad always gave great positive attention to the local band, the local drum corps, and the winter guard.  Not all coaches are like that. (He did raise another son who did become a football coach in Texas and who never understood his brother who majored in half time.)  Good luck. 

Edited by xandandl
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7 minutes ago, xandandl said:

Is your school to be reviewed soon for renewing State Education re-accreditation or regional accreditation such as Middle States, New England States, Atlantic, Gulf Coast or a number of subsets whose standards mean a lot to colleges accepting future students?  I've sat on some of the reviewing boards from each side of the table and know that when a criticism of failure to communicate between departments or between school admin and departments is raised, the echoes of such criticisms are heard fff by such accreditors. Reminding the admin and school boards that the co-curricular co-operative interplay among departments scores highly with such accreditors who do look at the number of students involved in each program and the faculty rankings for those same programs becomes quite influential. Unfortunately, techs and noobie teachers don't get to be heard as loudly as program directors and department heads. But here even the fly gets noticed.

Now I admit that my Dad was a school district athletic director for 40 years who coached several students who made the professional leagues. But besides Dad playing in the very first NCAA basketball Final Four (for Villanova) and professional baseball for the then NY Giants until WWII broke out, he also played the violin and got his Ph.D. at NYU. My Dad always gave great positive attention to the local band, the local drum corps, and the winter guard.  Not all coaches are like that. (He did raise another son who did become a football coach in Texas and who never understood his brother who majored in half time.)  Good luck. 

Good points.  I'll have to mull over how to bring this up, without the torches and pitchforks coming out from the admin office. I think we could get the AD in our corner, but it is her first year as an admin, AD, and even in a high school, and so I think she's still intimidated by the other admins. Who it seems studied under Bud Kilmer from West Canaan H.S. (Varsity Blues movie), or that dude who was running the Northern Illinois football program when they decided to run over the marching arts group practicing at their facility one summer.

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1 hour ago, ibexpercussion said:

I know this is not necessarily about world class drum corps, but it is the group on here I interact with the most.

When did it become a thing for their to be presentations, or honoring players who were the back-up punter from 1963's district 5th place team? Tomorrow night will be the second time this season, and 7th time in the last 3 years, that my band cannot do halftime due to one of these ridiculous presentations. It's not at my school this time, but that did happen earlier this season. Why don;t they do these things before the game, in between quarters, or after the bands are done at halftime. My group always plays their part, and supports the team every Friday night, win or lose, but then to not be able to perform, ridiculous. 

Thoughts? Anyone else having these issues, or is this just happening around my area?

For halftime, does your band perform only things like the fight song/alma mater and all the various finger-snappin toe-tappin music; or does the band perform the 'contest' show which many times is self-service esoteric material with the fight song as you exit the field? The former is what football halftime is designed for which is exclusive school support and crowd entertainment; the latter is treating it like it is the concert stage for a dress run-through of the contest show and an educational platform for the audience.

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