SHS seniors drum up support for band petition

For the majority of Solon High School seniors, a commons period is a time to catch up on homework, chat with friends and play a few rounds of table tennis. However, a group of three seniors dedicated their second period to a cause they deemed even greater than Uno cards or Breakfast Bungalow cinnamon rolls: the relocation of the marching band.

In previous years, SHS’ marching band sat in the end zone opposite the scoreboard and closer to the high school during home football games. However, as part of a new initiative to improve school spirit, administration moved the band’s location this fall to the other side of the field to perform closer to the student section.

“The main disadvantage [of the move] is the location of the scoreboard,” said SHS senior flutist Madeleine Burland. “It makes everything a lot more difficult for us [band members], not only in seeing the score and the time on the clock. It blocks our view of things, especially the student section, which is what we really are supposed to be there to help out.”

Burland soon found that many other band members shared similar sentiments about the relocation, with common complaints including an inability to hear the band directors over the noise of the student section as well as attendees’ inability to see the band members behind the scoreboard.

Burland, along with fellow band squad leaders Dana McNamara, clarinet, and Daniel Prokopius, saxophone, decided that they needed to take a stand. They worked together over multiple commons periods to draft a petition to return the band to its original position on the field, which they plan to get signed by a majority of SHS’ band before bringing it to the administrators.

“We’re hoping if we get enough signatures, [our location] will change,” Prokopius said.

He explained that despite the administration’s goal of improving school spirit, the amount of student-band interaction after the relocation has remained the same.

“Before we moved, the reason we were having trouble with school spirit wasn’t because the student section couldn’t hear us,” McNamara said. “They didn’t know what to do when we played songs that were meant to be participated with, [and] moving us doesn’t really change that.”

Although several teachers have already given negative feedback and even outright rejected the petition and its creators, the petitioners hope that they will be taken seriously and given a chance to explain their position.

“We’re not against school spirit,” Burland said. “We just think there are better ways to do it than moving us to the side of the field that causes more problems for the band.”

Read the full band petition below:

We the band would like to petition to return to our original location in the football stadium. We understand why the move was made, to encourage spirit in the student section, but we believe that the change had no effect on the majority of the students, as we observed at the last two games. The band as a whole does want to interact with the student section more, but we don’t think moving the band is the solution. Instead, we would like to collaborate with the spirit squad to create a unified SHS to support our comets together. By teaching the spirit squad the traditions of the band- the special dances and motions that we do for specific songs and drum cadences- we can invigorate the student section and enhance school spirit as a whole without moving the band.

The band has many reasons to want to move back, most importantly being that we can’t effectively support the football team. The band participates in football games primarily to support the team by playing and conducting cheers for them. In our current position, we are unable to see the scoreboard, and are thus unable to see when quarters end, which is the main time we play during games. Being so near the scoreboard also poses the risk of interfering with the game in that the directors are required to back up almost to the end zone in order to see what time it is. Additionally, the volume of the student section makes it difficult for the band to hear Mr. Kline, thereby making it more difficult for the band to know what to play and when, consequently impacting our ability to support the team. Another problem that we ran into the last two fridays, was the fact that the scoreboard makes it much more difficult for the student section to see us, despite the fact that we’re sitting closer to them. This obstacle actually produces the opposite effect of what we want in creating more school spirit. This placement also impacts the spirit of the band, which is just as important as that of the student section. In being placed behind the scoreboard, and out of the view of the stands, the band feels disconnected from the crowd and the team. The band draws from the energy of the stands in the same way that our music inspires the students and spectators who come to see the football team and band alike.

In short, we believe the repositioning of the band has not served its intended purpose of improving school spirit as a whole. By teaching the student section the band’s dances and cadences, we can solve the problem of the band’s location by moving it back to the other side of the field while at the same time bringing our school spirit to a new level. Enclosed is a petition signed by us, the members of the band, in support of this proposition.

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,

The Solon High School Marching Band