SJ-O Marching band to use competition break to focus on fundamentals

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.

The same can be said for marching band competitions.

“Competition season in Illinois can be weird,” St. Joseph-Ogden High School Marching Band Director Chuck Hess said. “There are contests where you are grouped by school size and others by band size.  There are also different judging formats and how scores are tabulated, so week-to-week it’s hard to get a solid read on if we’re improving.”

The Marching Spartans only have one measure that they can hold to: doing better than the last band on the practice field.

“When we’re at competitions we focus on having our best performance ever,” he said. “The students know about the judging system and how it can be finicky one week to the next.  If we come off the field feeling like we’ve done our best, we learn from what the judges share with us to help us get to the next level in our performance.”

The system, coupled with a compelling story of zombies who are called back to life to perform, has worked during the first half of the 2019 competition season.

The 51-member band hit the field in July for two weeks, resulting in students learning all the music and charts. Once school began, the Spartans worked on tightening up their show and playing catch up with some band members who were absent during the two weeks of camp.

Hess said by the time September rolls around, underclassmen, particularly the freshmen, are wondering why they have spent so much time working so hard.

Then, they hit the road to their first band competition where they not only get to perform, but watch other bands and await the awards ceremony.

“The first show is usually the one where the hook finally gets set in our freshmen,” Hess said.

The Spartans traveled to Washington Community High School on Sept. 7, bringing home third place in their class and the best color guard in their 2A class.

Hess said the experience helped them work out a lot of things logistically.

On the Sept. 14, the Spartan headed west, playing at Morton High School with five other 2A bands.

“This contest was based on school size and so we had some stiff competition from programs that have larger bands,” Hess said.

SJ-O placed third out of six band and were only .85 points away from second place.

With that confidence, the Spartans finished up the first half of their competition season last weekend at Mount Zion, where six other bands performed in the 2A section.

“While we took second in our class it’s cool to point out that out of 18 bands that competed that day, we were fourth overall beating all of the bands in the next larger size class and one of the bands in the largest class,” Hess said.

Drum Major Tyson Madsen also took home Best Drum Major.

With a three-week break before picking up again on Oct. 12, Hess said the band will focus on individual growth.

“We’ll be spending more time on marching fundamentals and making sure they are being incorporated into the show and working musically on timing, tone quality, and projection,” he said.

Hess also said that the success the band has found in September has also taught them about hard work.

“They are starting to realize that you can’t escape the hard lifting if you want to improve,” he said.

Students have also noticed that the SJ-O crowd has been more receptive to their performance during home football games.

“I believe the show lends itself to that,” Hess said. “Their support is great and I believe has helped build confidence in our students.”

The Spartans will travel to Illinois Wesleyan University to compete on Oct. 12 before going to Lebanon, Ill. for the Small Band Championships on Oct.19. Their season will conclude near home, at the University of Illinois, on Oct. 26.