The North Mecklenburg Marching Band has officially started its 2023 season. With the departure of former director Mr. Herriman, new band director Mr. George has stepped in with the help of science teachers Mr. Mobley and Mr. Getz (who have been working with the marching band for years now). The band started practicing before school started during what is called “Band Camp.” Here, they learned their marches and music. It lasted from July 31st to August 11th, and they had optional practices in March for memorization of the music they were playing. This month they will be going to their first and only competition on October 28th.
While the marching band is still performing excellently, they have gone through some rough patches to get to where they are today. At the beginning of Band Camp, North Meck was still in the process of hiring a new band director. When Mr. George was hired, he had many new ideas and wanted to change what these kids had been doing for months. Many of the students involved were unnerved by this and didn’t want to change their theme and music since they had already paid someone to create the pieces and formations for their specific number of people. After weeks of discussion, they put it to a vote and they ended up changing their original game plan.
Since then, they’ve been working hard to be the best they can, staying after school from 2:30 all the way to 5:30 every day of the week. They traveled to away games with our football team and performed at the pep rally on October 5th. They’ve performed at the pep rally every year, but this year was a new challenge for them since they had to perform at two different pep rallies, which put more pressure on them to be perfect in each one. However, the entire marching band handled it professionally and played beautifully at each one, showing off their school spirit. Unfortunately, things took a bit of a turn when it came to the actual Homecoming football game, where they were forced to evacuate the stadium after a fight between four students caused the game to end five minutes early.
However, marching band isn’t just an extracurricular activity these kids do to put on their college applications. They truly love what they’re doing and treat each other like family. The entire group is full of amazing people, made up of extraordinary section leaders and exceptional drum major McKenzie Schoonover, a senior. They go through ups and downs and help support each other even through the worst of times. This is what truly makes the North Meck marching band so great: the community they’ve formed around it.
According to Rooney Adrong, a sophomore, “marching band was fun even though it was hard. It taught me that perseverance leads to growth.” This just shows how tightly knit the North Meck Marching Band is, making them work harder not just for themselves, but their peers and friends as well.
In all, the season has started with a bang, even if they did have some bumps in the road. With the family they’ve created and the community to back them up, the season looks like it will be another successful one for the North Meck Marching Band, no matter what gets thrown at them. 🆅