Health & Fitness
The Golden Eagle Season Ends with Another State Championship!
The season is finally over for the Ferndale Marching Band. It was a long, but fun journey!
Well, we did it again!
Last weekend was the end of a long, but exciting and rewarding marching band season with the Ferndale Golden Eagle Marching band. Lots of emotions run through staff and kids alike as we entered into the weekend. For our seniors, it is the last time they do all of these things, and it starts to hit them very quickly.
Finals week tends to be a really stressful and anxiety-filled week for everybody. I think we did pretty well this week keeping it more subdued. It didn’t hurt that we started the week with Halloween. We toyed with idea of trying to change the rehearsal date, but couldn’t make it work… so we played along. A few years ago, for our show Fire and Ice, a few of our dads built an air cannon, which shot flame-like streamers at the end of our show across the field. Every since that year the cannon comes out once a year for special occasions. We thought Halloween was just one of those occasions. We can’t remember whom at this point, but somebody had a fantastic idea of shooting Halloween candy out of the air cannon on to the football field so kids could scramble for it like a huge piñata. Well, let’s just say it worked… really well, and those kids will have a GREAT memory of that Halloween.
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The rest of the week was a very “get-down-to-business” kind of week, but not all that much different from normal. On Friday before finals we have an extended rehearsal in a soccer dome in Waterford. This was actually the second one we had this year, as we did one before the BOA show back in October. The rehearsal was very productive, and is usually when the seniors start feeling the end of their band careers.
Friday night (or Saturday morning REALLY early) is a very sacred night for the seniors. They take the opportunity to “decorate” some houses. Nobody is safe, really, especially if you live in Ferndale. It’s mainly targeted at staff, but some students get it too. I know there is a flute/trumpet exchange that happens every year. Our house was very lovely, with a vintage flair. I believe Ben Moy’s house had a camping theme. What we find interesting is that the tradition seems to be that of random objects, not just toilet paper. It’s very strange, but whatever. Two of the seniors this year were generous enough to come out on Sunday morning and tidy up – that’s a rarity, and we thank them!
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So Saturday is the big day. I wish I could tell you all about the rehearsal leading up to our departure, but my dear baby wanted to sleep… all morning, which was good since the rest of the day was going to be so long for him. I do know that it went really well and everybody felt really excited about the upcoming performance. For the seniors, it is the last time they will rehearse their show on the Ferndale football field.
The coolest part about leaving Ferndale is the parade. When I first moved here, I told a group of band parents that back in my hometown the police used to escort the band out of the city on their way to finals. Well, things have never been the same here since. Every year a few members of the Ferndale police force escort us (with lights, sirens, and running red lights) out of the city. Now this alone would be very cool, except that there are also families and community members that line the streets with posters cheering and waving to the caravan. It is truly one of the most touching things I experience every year, and it makes me so proud to live in this community. So if you’ve ever heard all of this noise and wonder what is going on, now you know. Next year, come join the parade! It’s so funny though when we get past the parade of people and the police and buses are still left making the noise – the people that happen to just be out that morning gives you the strangest looks. It’s very funny.
Since there’s not a lot of warm-up time or space at Ford Field, we take a detour to the Red Cross, where one of our staff members works, to have a pre-warm-up in the parking lot. This is a good way to get the kids into performance mode even before arriving at the field. I don’t usually get to see much of it though since many of the staff and parents have a little ritual of going to the Starbucks across the street. You don’t have to get coffee though; you can just use the bathroom – as long as you go over.
After that brief warm-up the kids get back on the buses and head to Ford Field. There we park outside and unload everything. We get some time outside in some loading dock areas to have a music/guard warm-up. After this warm-up there’s still almost another hour of waiting, so this is the time to really prepare. When this warm-up is over, we waited in the tunnel to enter the dome for a few minutes until the locker rooms were clear for us to go in. Here is when we are finally inside the structure, so we tune carefully. Instruments change a lot in intonation between outside and inside, so we wait until we’re inside to do it. The kids also get to go to the bathroom, but this whole time is mostly silent.
The next step is the “hurry up and wait” part – we line up the band, walk down to the main entrance to the field and WAIT. It’s a hard wait as we watch/listen to the band performing before us. The kids use this time to get focused and mentally prepare. I usually use this time trying not to get sick from nerves!
When it’s our turn, everything is the same as any normal competition. The band marches on to the field, the guard sets all of their flags, and the pit members and parents set up the pit equipment. We’ve done this plenty of times, so there’s little worry about a time penalty at this point. The show starts as normal – except the audience is huge and it’s the most screaming in excitement we ever hear in one season.
The show that the kids performed was the best they could have done! As we call it, they “left it all on the field.” It was time to take our official band picture and wait for awards. Thankfully awards weren't too long after our picture, because it is really hard to wait for that! Usually the staff knows the result of a competition way before awards because directors get their scores almost right after they perform, but not at finals. We have to wait just like the kids, which is torture for us.
There were 12 bands this year, and each place they get gives a bigger pit in your stomach, as it’s not your name being read. They announced the award for best marching first, I think around when they announced fourth place. We received that award, but it didn’t mean we had won the show. They announced another band placement before they announced best music, which we also won. But even then, it didn’t mean we won the show, but it did make us more confident about it… until best general effect was called and it wasn’t us! That was scary, and they announced it right before they did second place.
When second place was called and it wasn’t our kids, you couldn’t hear a sound from our band. What you could sense though was the collective breath being let out by all of us as the anxiety of the awards was over. It’s a thrilling moment, and the kids do a great job to be classy about it. Even when we do get called as the winner, the audience cheers but our kids politely clap. We’re surrounded by other bands that have watched us win all of these other times, so to do anything different than that would be thoughtless.
The celebration starts on the street. We gathered the entire band, as parents followed, in front of the Comerica park entrance. We got in one huge circle and had our celebration as the staff handed out the first place medals. We crowded them in for pictures, and there was a huge mob of parents and families right there with us.
The police escorted us back into the city that evening, somewhere around 9 p.m. The kids unloaded like usual and went on their way. It was a long day and they were tired!
On Sunday, we had our annual band banquet where we celebrate and remember our season with our families. The kids, staff, parents, and other volunteers who helped all throughout the season are all recognized, and kids hand out thank-you notes to their peers. The seniors are recognized and receive their senior gifts. This year we watched the three milestone videos of our season – the video we took at camp, the BOA video, and the premier of the finals video from the night before. It was really neat to be able to see the progression and just how good the band got to be.
It has been a great season, and I have enjoyed sharing it with the larger Ferndale community through this blog. I hope that you have learned something more about our program and have come to a new level of pride for this special gem we have right here. So much heart and soul goes into this activity from so many people, and it’s an activity the changes the lives for all who are involved. Thank you for your continued support for us, and we’ll see you next year!
For more pictures of finals taken by our Ferndale photographers, please visit - https://picasaweb.google.com/117554041946486359679/2011FHSMarchingBandStateFinals
You can join the Ferndale Golden Eagle Marching Band on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2254205881/