By FRED KRONER
This was a state tournament, but with do-over potential.
In the past 15 months, there seemingly is a new normal for all phases of life, from how we interact with friends to how classroom education is done and to how we can view sporting events.
Add to the long and growing list the process of submitting entries for an IHSA state tournament.
A so-called second chance was an option for all schools that participated in the IHSA Music Sweepstakes contest, which started in March and ended in April.
And while schools could re-do a performance that seemed less than optimal, Heritage senior Jack Humphrey said that one basic fact couldn’t be changed.
“It gave everyone a better chance to play their best music, not just our school’s band,” said Humphrey, a percussionist. “I don’t think it made it any easier though, since we had to sound good in the first place.”
Humphrey, and the entire Heritage band and chorus, made enough good sounds that when judging was completed, the high school with less than 150 students was alone in first place in the Class D division, based on enrollment.
The state championship was the first for Heritage High School in any team extra-curricular activity, but this year marked the third in a row for a top-five state finish.
“Never once in my life did I think a small school with a choir of nearly 30 could make music that sounded that beautiful,” Brodie Meneely said. “Never did I think that I could do that.
“It was an eye-opening experience on my own abilities and of those that sang with me.”
Superintendent Tom Davis said everyone associated with the school is justifiably proud.
“Like our Heritage academics year after year, our extracurricular activities, especially with this state title in music, continues to outperform what anyone would expect from the smallest public high school in Champaign and Ford counties,” Davis said.
The previous best finish for Heritage High School in the state music competition was a runner-up finish in 1993.
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Sweepstakes is a two-part competition that schools may enter. The first part is Solo and Ensemble Contest. Part 2 is Organization Contest.
Schools receive points for how well its various entries place.
“It’s a quantity and quality contest,” said Heritage band director Justin Lee, who has been involved with music education for 19 years. “You need a lot of entries, and they need to do well.”
The scoring for solo and ensemble is structured such that each first-division rating is worth six points and each second-division rating garners three points. Other entries do not score.
The Organization Contest features large ensembles (full bands, choir and orchestras). First-division ratings generate 75 points for a school while second-division ratings collect 37 ½ points.
To determine the state champions, scores from each competition that were held at separate times were combined into one overall point total.
In the small-school classification (Class D), Heritage had a substantial lead when all the scoring was completed.
The Heritage state champions amassed 435 points. Runner-up Milledgeville had 327 points Third-place Henry-Senachwine totaled 249 points and fourth-place Golconda ended with 175 ½ points.
Lee tried to alleviate pressure from his students as they prepared for state.
“The goal was never to win,” he said, “but to do our best. Sometimes, a student’s best isn’t a ‘1’ during the snapshot the judge sees.
“But we know the process and context, and they’re still a ‘1’ in our program.”
Lee’s expectation was that the state series could provide an opportunity to remove other frustrations from the school year.
“These are amazing kids across the board, and the bread and butter of our year – marching band and pep band – just didn’t happen for us,” Lee said. “I figured this was a good way to channel some of that energy towards a goal.
“We have the numbers and the quality to do well.”
Meneely said there were overall expectations for the entire group and that each student set their own standards as well.
“The expectations as competition day approached were quite simple in the face of everything: have a mask, your instrument, your music, wear white from the waist up and black from the waist down, and be ready to play,” Meneely said. “However, these were the expectations set for everyone, and everyone had their own personal expectations they had set.
“Personally, I was reminding myself of certain crescendos where the music increases in volume, to maintain my breathing throughout singing and playing, and to believe that I could play at a level worthy of a state championship; that I could help my school succeed in bringing home that trophy.”
Practices and rehearsals, however, weren’t the starting point.
“Finding music that met the requirements, was learnable in the very limited time we had, and still was of decent quality,” Lee said, referring to the first orders of business.
In all, 35 Heritage students participated in the music state series.
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It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Heritage during the preparation phase. There were fewer rehearsals than Lee would have liked.
For the students, that meant making more of a commitment.
“The preparation required for this feat was tremendous on an individual level,” Meneely said. “There was a ton of personal time that had to be spent outside of class when it came to both the choir and band pieces.
“I even spent some of my car rides driving to and from work (in Tuscola) listening and singing along to the organization choir songs, and we had to put together a make-shift sousaphone with parts from three different instruments after my original sousaphone’s fingering broke.
“With all that, it was a ton of mental and psychological preparation. From knowing when to rehearse, to understanding and believing you could accomplish the tasks set ahead of you.”
Lee said there was an unexpected hurdle that had to be cleared as final preparations were in place before submitting the contest entries.
“In the week leading up to the deadline, I was quarantined – along with a good chunk of the band – but we managed to get nearly all of them submitted on time.”
Adena Paul recognized the importance of maintaining a positive mindset.
“My expectations for competition day was to try my best and to remember that even if I did make a mistake, don’t give it away,” Paul said. “Also, I had expectations for my peers to also have a good mentality when going in the competition, because it only takes one person to bring the whole thing down.
“Another one was that we had been practicing for a long time, and so it was expected that you know your part and that it felt comfortable to play it.”
Jackson Tatar was pleased by the work that Heritage submitted.
“After the first few songs, I knew we were going to be scored pretty high,” Tatar said. “We normally do pretty well, but we nailed it that day.
“Personally, I thought the performance was fantastic.”
Tatar’s attitude was to not think about the magnitude of the state competition.
“I took it as a normal performance and didn’t overthink it too much,” Tatar said.
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Schools were given a date by which all materials had to be submitted.
“Fortunately, we could submit our ‘best take,’” Lee said. “For Solo and Ensemble students, I let them do up to three takes, and we submitted the best.
“For Organization Contest, we held a four-hour recording session for the three groups – with a limited, socially-distanced crowd – where each piece also had multiple recordings made.”
The extra takes made for a grueling day, but Meneely said it was beneficial.
“It was a blessing to be able to record multiple times, then select the recording that best met the expectations of our judges, and overall had the best sounding quality,” Meneely said. “It also allowed us to get more rehearsal in; the more repetitions you get in, the better it will sound due to the confidence that is gained from completing the same task over and over again, along with the nervousness that leaves, and the practicality of rehearsing a song.
“However, that also meant that slacking could be prevalent since you knew you had multiple takes. Overall, though, it allowed for stress to be relieved and good music to be produced.”
Paul was appreciative of knowing that each entry group had the chance to correct mistakes before the judges would hear it.
“I find it advantageous to play several different takes and then decide what to submit for the reason that if you messed up on one of them, you could always go back and redo it until you were satisfied with the finished product,” Paul said. “That way you had multiple chances of doing the best that you could instead of just doing one and then being done.”
“But, along with this, it was very tiring to do several takes at times, and on different pieces. It just drained all of your energy.”
As for the logistics of performing, Humphrey said it wasn’t a total change from previous years.
“Preparing during these weird times was not all that different from practices during a regular school year,” Humphrey said. “The only main differences were the same ones you see everywhere else nowadays: Everyone was just spaced out farther and we all had to wear masks.”
Paul recognized that not everyone played their best on the same take.
“When I finished playing, I was satisfied with most of my entries, but there were some places that I messed up, so I was doubtful about those,” Paul said. “But, I decided to just go along with it because even if it had mistakes, it might’ve been the best recording that came out of that piece.
“I feel that some of my entries went better than others due to me being more prepared for them.”
Tatar liked the ‘practice makes perfect’ adage.
“It was nice to be able to have multiple takes like the recording studio to get the perfect take,” he said. “We had ample attempts to perfect the music.”
Once all of the takes had been completed, Humphrey had a feeling of satisfaction.
“I thought we played our best music,” Humphrey said.
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Heritage had a staggering 32 individuals receive the highest rating (Superior Division I) at Solo and Ensemble.
They were:
Adena Paul – Piano solo
Adena Paul – Vocal solo
Adena Paul – Flute solo
Aidan Ashbrook – Vocal solo
Alex Ward – Flute solo
Ben Shanks – Clarinet solo
Ben Shanks – Vocal solo
Brodie Meneely – Vocal solo
Cale Longfellow – Baritone solo
Cohen Sands – Vocal solo
Dylan Ploense – Trumpet solo
Fletcher Hannah – Alto Sax solo
Izzy Reed – Alto Sax solo
Julianne Harper – Clarinet solo
Jack Humphrey – Snare Drum solo
Jackson Tatar – Snare Drum solo
Katelyn Bensyl – Clarinet solo
Kolton Junglas – Tenor Sax solo
Lily Ploense – Flute solo
Lily Ploense – Vocal solo
Madeline Thompson – Vocal solo
Mary Roland – Alto Sax solo
Owen Ashbrook – Trombone solo
Owen Ashbrook – Vocal solo
Rowan Denmark-Collins – Tenor Sax solo
Rowan Denmark-Collins – Vocal solo
Sam Gilbert – Baritone solo
Sam Gilbert – Vocal solo
Trinity Tatman – Vocal solo
Trinity Tatman – Clarinet solo
Tristan Sands – Vocal solo
Zach Ruwe – Vocal solo
Additionally, the percussion choir of Zach Ruwe, Jack Humphrey, Jackson Tatar, Adena Paul, Julian Campos, Sam Gilbert, Cohen Sands, Tristan Sands and Trinity Tatman also earned a Superior rating.
Four Heritage students were accorded an excellent (Division 2) Rating:
Zach Ruwe – Snare Drum solo
Tristan Sands – Snare Drum solo
Emma Young – Vocal solo
Dylan Parrish – Trumpet solo
All three Heritage groups (Concert Band, Jazz Combo, Bass Chorus) entered in the Organization Contest earned a First Division rating.
While the students were the ones who impressed the judges, Lee was equally impressed with some behind-the-scenes contributors.
“There are some amazing people that need recognition as well,” Lee said, “Angie Ruwe, our accompanist; Debbie Wascher for being an amazing music sub for me while this process was going on; Corey White, our high school principal, for being supportive throughout; and Lori Archer, our athletic director, who has always been the reason we can ‘make all the things work’ when it comes to scheduling at Heritage.
“This isn’t a flash-in-the-pan thing, but a product of a school that supports the arts.”
Students seconded Lee’s praise, and added one other essential individual to the list of those deserving of thanks.
“I would like to point out the thoughtfulness and care that came from all our supporters, our accompanist and permanent band mom Angie Ruwe, and our band and choir director Justin Lee who make all this possible,” Meneely said. “The amount of time that came from them in order for us to succeed and the support they gave us, was what allowed us to accomplish this championship.
“It’s been a long, stressful year and this was something that made all of our efforts worthwhile, and the experiences that came with it will be ones I and others cherish for the rest of our lives.”
Humphrey said he had a good feeling throughout the process.
“My expectations for the competition were pretty high for our band,” Humphrey said. “I knew we had what it would take to place pretty high in our class.
“We had a great sound already and we have – in my opinion – the best band director in the state.”
Administrators such as White and Davis also played a key role.
“The school has been great about allowing me the maximum flexibility to find time to work with students and record within our shortened day,” Lee said. “I actually had a sub for a full week at the Elementary/Junior High building so I could stay at the High School and record all week.”
Though the virtual format for this year’s IHSA state series was workable, Lee won’t advocate for it year after year.
“It helped in that we could work for the best take of a performance and that we didn’t have to load a trailer of equipment to go somewhere (for the state competition),” Lee said. “However, while I understand and support that it isn’t possible right now, I prefer it to be in person.
“There is an energy and finality to live performances that brings closure to the preparation process.”
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The state championship – and the process that led to that result – are memories the Heritage students will treasure and savor for decades.
“I was so excited and proud because it is such a great accomplishment to have,” Paul said. “I was proud of all my classmates for putting all the work and doing their best to get the job done.
“To me, it means that I was a part of the school’s great accomplishments. To the school, I think it means that our other extracurricular programs can also succeed outside of the sports world.
“It also gives others who do not participate in sports a moment to be recognized for all their hard work that they put into their activities.”
Meneely learned about Heritage’s title while at work.
“When I heard that we had the top spot unofficially, my mouth dropped,” Meneely said. “I remember being so excited that at the moment I told my manager about it and then received a smile for my ‘childish excitement,’ along with congratulations.
“This was the biggest thing that I was a part of in my entire high school career; that I was finally able to leave a legacy that would stick for eternity within the school and in the hearts of those who participated.”
By the time the IHSA verified the preliminary results, Meneely said that announcement was like a foregone conclusion.
“When we received the official scores that signified our victory, everyone expected it, but it was nonetheless still a moment of triumph, relief, and happiness,” Meneely said.
“There’s already been a new case ordered for all our band and choir accomplishments throughout the years.”
For Humphrey, the state title will serve as an ideal going-away memory.
“It means a lot to me because it’s my senior year and it feels pretty nice to go out on top,” Humphrey said.
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What’s next?
“I think we could be a Top 3 school every year IF we made that a priority,” Lee said. “Our numbers are solid for a school our size, and in a pandemic year, we entered two groups in Organization that didn’t even exist here last year – Jazz Combo and Bass Choir.
“Give them a challenge and they rise up to it. These are good kids.”
There’s a kicker to the story.
The Bass Choir, in its debut season at Heritage, was selected Best of the Day for the contest area that included Heritage. It’s an honor bestowed regardless of Class (AA, A, B, C, D).
“A nice feather in the cap,” Lee said.
Just another reason Heritage will be remembered as the small school which secured big-time success in 2021.
