Marching Band Revised Schedule!

Marching Band Families,

WE’RE BACK! And we have an approved schedule (see attached)!!!

The result of the survey were very telling about rehearsals. I noticed that many of our younger students could not do our traditional T/Th 2:45-4:30 rehearsals due to transportation. We also have kids on every sports team Cousino has to offer, and many of them have evening times that conflict with marching band. For this reason, our new rehearsal times will be MONDAY and THURSDAY from 6-8:30 pm. I know this is a change, but this is what we have to do in order to keep the majority of our kids involved. If there are any rehearsal conflicts, please contact me at your earlier convenience so we can work out a plan.

You will also notice that there are a few Saturday rehearsals and no Friday football games. This is because MHSAA is not allowing bands into the football games (which is ridiculous because they have no jurisdiction over band programs, but nobody seems to listen to us when we speak). We are replacing our football games with a few Saturdays at the stadium. We will rehearse from 11-1, and do a full run through at 12:30.

As of right now we are planning on doing Band-O-Rama at Sterling Heights HS with them and Mott, but that can change. Our MSBOA district is planning on doing a “virtual” marching band festival. They are going to send a professional crew to our school to recordour show from the stadium (time TBA and date subject to change). They will edit that video into one long video that will be live-streamed the following week, with the judges watching the stream and giving their comments. We will still get a rating for this performance. Just a heads up that we may cut the show down because we have lost significant practice time, and MSBOA has eased up on the timing requirements due to many bands not having the same amount of time to rehearse like in previous years. However, we will continue to work on all four songs.

Finally, I have been envisioning doing a senior show, and it looks like we are going to be able to make it happen this year. The week after festival, we will practice a song from each of the past four years (as picked by our senior class) and put on a small presentation of our senior marchers at that time. More into will be forthcoming as we get into October.

I am so excited to be back on the field with my band family once again. Please remember that I cannot let you back on the field or into rehearsals without the signed commitment form from WCS. If you have any questions or conflicts, please let me know! Thank you and GO PATRIOTS!

Jason Rose