Because we have been housed at Gifford Elementary School for the last 8 years, we have racked up some serious custodial overtime. With things the way they are, the district moved us to Park High School right after school was let out so that we would be able to rehearse and have custodians there already - thus not having to pay overtime and in the end saving the district money. This idea sounded good on paper - but the reason we left Park HS after the 2001 season was that trying to get rehearsal space and fields to rehearse on at a high school is often very, very hard to do. Gifford has been the perfect place for us to house our equipment and rehearse with pretty much unlimited field space.
So, anyway, the school year is done and at the end of record's day we all meet at Gifford and load up EVERYTHING and make the move to Park to begin our band camp (by the way - this was a Tuesday and our first show was the following Sunday). We pack everything in record time and get over to Park by about 2:30. The visual staff runs out and gets the football field lined and we are set to go.....except that now we are being told that the field has been re-seeded and we can NOT use it. We have use of a field house for only a few hours each day and no place to learn the rest of our show. Long story short - after two days of NO field time and trying to make the best out of a bad situation - we move back to Gifford for the rest of the summer. I have never been so happy to see that Gator at the front of the school.
We finally learned the remaining drill by lunch on Saturday. Our show in Janesville on Sunday was pretty rough - and it usually is for all of the rookies. That first show is such an overload on their brains and senses - to just get through it is a huge step forward. Two nights later, we performed in rehearsal clothes for some other MACBDA bands at the annual social and it was like watching a completely different group - they really turned it on.
We are currently staying overnight in Prophetstown, IL - home of some killer Kamikaze gnats. The heat has been pretty intense the past two days and I thought our performance last night was a small step backward because I felt they let the heat get to them - it was almost like they are not used to performing in their uniforms, yet. The funny thing is - all of the other directors told me the same thing about their members last night. We have a nice chunk of rehearsal time today to start cleaning the show and I hope the members can kick out a great show tonight.
- Rex out
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