Originally Published in the November 26th Print Publication
The final whistle of the second quarter pierces the cold Friday night air of North Creek’s last football home game at Pop Keeney Stadium, signaling the fifteen-minute halftime and a dazzling seven-minute show performed by the school’s marching band. Cheers erupt from stands as the band fans out on the field in a neat formation, the stadium lights reflecting off their purple-silver uniforms and feather-white plumes. Drum majors and field conductors Adarsh Prabhu and Ellie Lammers, dressed in all-white uniforms, raise their arms as the band bursts into the North Creek fight song, the heavy crashing of cymbals and the bright, brassy notes of trumpets rising into the cloud-webbed sky.
That final halftime performance finally wrapped up marching band season, allowing the students to focus on their next priority: competitive band, something many didn’t think they’d get to see this year. Before the marching season ended, the prospect of an additional comp band season was more a question than a statement, especially with the new director change, loss of valuable adults, and budget cuts. In this fragile situation, drum majors Adarsh Prabhu, Ellie Lammers, and many other students have stepped up to the challenge, supporting the band and ensuring it stays alive.
“Our competitive marching band group was going to be stopped this year because it wasn’t in the best interest for our normal marching band to also do competitive marching band, so we were just going to do the marching band for football games,” Prabhu said. “I took the lead with my other fellow drum major Ellie Lammers to [work] hard along band council to make sure that our season would be well established.”
Fueled by the desire to continue the momentum and keep a competitive marching band, a new, student-directed club had been created. “The comp band was forty people that said, ‘I want to continue the legacy of our marching band’. We need to stand up, we need to work together and together we persevered and made it happen,” Lammers said.
While most marching bands begin their season in July or August, North Creek’s competitive marching band faced a unique challenge, starting as late as October. Unlike other bands that hire professional drill writers and rely on a team of five to ten adult staff members, North Creek’s band took a different path. Without the time or resources for outside help and the departure of the former band director, the students stepped up, designing and teaching the drill themselves. They dedicated countless hours to rehearsals, practicing at least three times a week to refine their routine.
Starting this year, the 5th grade band program will be dropped, possibly affecting future middle and high school musicians. “For future bands that [don’t] have a fifth-grade band, we’ll see if it affects future people. I don’t know what’ll happen there.” Lammers admitted. She graduated from a school that did not offer 5th-grade band, but for most students, including Prabhu, 5th grade was where band started for them.
“5th grade is…how you’d choose your elective for what classes you’d take after you get out of elementary school,” Prabhu added. “Me, the band, and a lot of band parents have raised concerns regarding this. A lot of schools who have well-established band programs…[were] still getting programs cut and we just wanted to make sure that didn’t happen this year.” The performance of future high school musicians will decrease. However, as of this year, the budget cuts have not seemed to affect the freshmen as much.
The freshmen this year, Lammers said, surprised her. “I’m only a junior but I think they’re the best class I’ve seen come up so far,” she remarked. According to freshman Audrey Sanderson, the older students, especially Lammers and Prabhu, have been extremely helpful. “The community is really great. The upperclassmen [were] told that we weren’t going to do marching band so many times, and they kept going, again and again,” she said. Her band experience started in 5th grade when she started playing French horn before transitioning to mellophone. Her friend and fellow freshman, Luke Johns, also started band in 5th grade.
“It was COVID time, when lockdown happened, [and] our teacher Mr. Carlson sent us these videos of upperclassmen at the time playing their instrument really well at home,” Johns said while outside his science classroom on Tuesday. “That kind of really inspired me. I’ve always just been playing trumpet since.”
Many adults have stepped up over the years to help run the budget and help with the band. “We had a competitive marching band last year so we went to competitions and also we had a lot of support from adults in and outside of school,” said sophomore Katelyn Kawamura. “Now there’s a lot of stuff that we do personally.”
“We lost a lot of valuable adults,” Prabhu said. “Our marching coordinator, our drum line coordinator, and other band parents and teachers. The classes have gone differently, and the after-school activities have worked a little bit differently but we all agreed that something had to change within what we were doing…that’s why we advocated for our performances, for our competitive marching band, so we can make sure we can keep all the activities and cultures we established from the years before.”
Despite the changes from previous years, the band has come a long way this year, from the competitive season almost being cut, to students starting a new club and taking initiative in writing the drills and leading the performances. “I’ve been really looking forward to [next season], because we’ve accomplished so much in five weeks, and next year we’re going to have the whole season, and I’m just excited to see how much better we can do,” Audrey Sanderson said with a small smile. Though many things in the marching band have changed this year, one thing is true – Adarsh, many other graduating seniors, and upperclassmen will continue to leave a lasting impression on the band.
“Leadership is challenging, but it’s good. I like doing it. I’ve grown so much as a person learning how to conduct and be in charge of people and regulate stuff when there’s conflict. And it’s really grown me as a person, I think, to be in charge.” Lammers states. Next year, she will have to fill in the shoes of her graduating drum major.
“Yeah, it’s scary. Adarsh is such a good drum major…once all the seniors leave this year, I’m honestly really nervous about next year, to be perfectly honest,” she said with a small laugh. “Hopefully [we’ll] have another junior drum major next year or at least another drum major. Usually, we try to have two, we might consider having three next year. There’s always gonna be another drum major. But honestly, it’s gonna be hard to rise up to Adarsh’s level next year, but I’m going to try my very best.” she said earnestly.
Meanwhile, Prabhu explained his main goal is to make sure that they can do everything they can to improve the band for this season and for many others. “I want to make sure that I have all the people around me who know how to keep this going and are able to keep this up.” Prabhu proclaimed. “I don’t want this to be a one-year thing. I want to make sure that it is a part of our band curriculum for the years to come.”
