The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
BANDED TOGETHER
Marching Panthers bandmates see band as an extended family
“For the kids, it’s like a fellowship and camaraderie, each section is sort of a subfamily within the overall family.”
Members of the Panther Marching Band sit in the auditorium at Euclid High School conversing, joking and ribbing each other as if they were sitting at home with family members.
Dance captain Arikka Miller, drumline section leader Evan Ritchey, trumpet player Nathaniel Dean, all seniors; along with majorette Jaden White,
freshman; and trombone player Gavin Lackey and flute player Kourtney Terry, both sophomores, see each other and the rest of the 90-member marching band as a very large extended family.
Part of what makes the band members bond together as a familial unit is how much time they spend together.
When asked the amount of
time spent with each other, Arikka said “a lot,” while Jaden jokingly said “too much.”
The band members spend two weeks in the summer at band camp, where they can be with each other eight to nine hours a days during that stretch. In addition, they spend at least three day a week in band practice and about six hours together on game days.
The group, during the discussion, agreed they can often spend 50 percent more of their time with their band families than with their actual family.
“I think some of the band kids are with us more than their own families,” Band Director Diane Tizzano said. “For the kids, it’s like a fellowship and camaraderie, each section is sort of a subfamily within the overall family.”
The bond among the band members transcends outside of their band time together.
“Most of the time outside of band, it’s our bandmates we spend our time with,” Jaden said. “They are often the only ones we can make plans with because everyone else has normal schedules.”
“We have lunch together, we are always with someone in the band,” Arikka
said of the dance team. “We always have sleepovers and stuff together. We have gotten so close we do everything together. If we don’t have classes together, we get sad.”
Evan feels that praying together adds to that family like feeling.
“When we do our shows in the four years since I’ve been here, we always do a prayer together, that is bringing us together,” he said. “It’s like how a family goes around the dinner table and prays and eats together. It’s just like when we circle up, pray and talk, it’s how we communicate.”
Kourtney explains how like siblings, bandmates make fun of each other when they do something stupid, but at the same time offer encouragement.
According to Gavin, the band members always try to hype each other up before a performance and remind each other they have their backs.
“We are a family because without them you are nothing and when we are all together we are something,” Evan said. “We are like brothers, we get into fights sometimes, but in the end we always work it out.”
Jaden, who is an only child, said even if she had a sibling, she would turn to her band siblings if she needed to talk because she feels they have more understanding and more perspective on what she would be trying to say than an actual
sibling.
While Gavin, who is the youngest among his two sisters and three brothers, feels like his siblings would listen for five minutes and then tell him to suck it up, but his bandmates, who are both siblings and friends, are there for him and more comforting.
The group describes the family makeup as the eighth-graders representing the younger siblings who look up to the older ones for guidance, and the seniors as the big brothers there to help them through their problems. The drumline is considered the parental figures, while the directors are considered the maternal family members.
Arikka feels that they function together. When one person is excited, they all feel the excitement, and that the bandmates share many of the same emotions.
She also feels that if one fails, they fail together, and they succeed together.
“One band, one sound, whether you’re twirling as a majorette, doing flags, dancing or are a drumline member, one band, one sound that’s it. It’s the same as being in a family,” Arikka said.
“One united family, no matter where we come from, whether we are black, white, 12th grade, eigth grade, 10th grade, we all come together as a family and basically make music. All of that comes together and we unite as one.”