For the first time since 2006, Scott High School has a competing marching band.
“I’m so excited, I’m so excited. Three competitions this year? I’m so excited. THREE competitions!” is how Scott senior, marching clarinetist and section leader Molly Lucas, described her feelings about this year’s season.
The band’s show, titled “Forces of Nature,” was entirely written by director Garrette Koeninger. With a background in percussion, Koeinger learned how to write drills and compose music to keep the band’s costs low.
“We cut every corner that we can to save money, to try to give them that same product,” said Koeninger. Fees for the band sit at just $100 per marching season.
Scott competes in the Mid States Band Association, a regional marching band circuit that serves students in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. With 48 marching members and six or seven on the color guard, they compete in Class AAA, which requires at least 45 members, excluding the guard.
The show incorporates Koeninger’s compositions of popular music like “EARFQUAKE” by Tyler the Creator. The theme “Forces of Nature,” Koeninger said, is thematically centered around the four elements of earth, water, fire and air.
“We are talking about how those elements exist within your body,” said Koeninger. “So, water can be patient and waiting for the right time, fire can start as maybe anger, but we can use it as motivation.”
Overall, through the theme of the show and the process of working to put it on and competing, he wants to show the kids that “through this dedication, we can become like a force to be reckoned with.”
This is Koeninger’s fourth year as the band director at Scott, and he said he has been preparing the band to start competing since his arrival. “We’ve kind of taken little baby steps forward.”
His first year, the band performed a small halftime show at football games. The next year, they put on a full halftime show. Then, last year, they participated in a competition as an “exhibition” group, meaning they performed at the competition but did not officially compete.
Going into last year’s competition, Koeninger said they had no idea there would be any prizes for exhibition groups. They were pleasantly surprised when they won the fan favorite award.
“And ever since then, the kids were just like, ‘When are we competing? When are we competing?’” said Koeninger. “Once they got that trophy to bring back, they were just ate up with it, which was really my goal. I was really hoping that once they saw what was out there, they would see that there’s so much more to this than they thought.”
Last year was also when Lucas, who is now planning on attending Northern Kentucky University next year for music, decided she really loved band. She started in eighth grade but said, “I didn’t really like band at first.”
“Last year, I really started to enjoy it more,” said Lucas, “I was like ‘this is something, this is really fun,’ and now I was to become like a band director, or just go into college for music education.”
The turning point for her was both moving into playing more challenging pieces and taking a class on music theory.
“When I took music theory class, I was like, ‘This is weird. This is very interesting,’” said Lucas. “I didn’t think music could be more than what it actually is. Yeah, music theory completely changed my perspective on music.”
Lucas went against the grain in her family as both her brother and sister played trumpet.
“I wanted to play trumpet, not because they did, but because I was like, ‘I want to play a horn.’ But my brother was like, ‘No, you’re playing clarinet, end of story,’” said Lucas.
Lucas said she loves being a section leader partly because she enjoys helping the people around her feel more comfortable and confident.
“If I show my personality just a little bit, it lets people also feel like ‘Okay, if she can show her personality, I can show my personality,’ and then everybody’s vibing, everybody’s becoming friends,” said Lucas.
Having been with the Scott High School Marching Band for all four years of high school, Lucas said it is amazing how much it has grown.
“You’d really have to have been here for all through all four years to really see the difference in how much this band has changed,” said Lucas.
As the director, Koeninger has been working hard to make that change. The biggest obstacle, he said, has been “buy-in” from the students.
When he first started, Koeninger said the band was practicing one or two hours a week with very limited performances. Now, they rehearse eight hours a week, perform at Friday night football games, and compete on the weekends.
“If you want to achieve something, the time that you spend on it is a lot,” said Koeninger. “You know, everybody wants to be great, but seeing that it’s going to take this much work to get there, sometimes it can be daunting, but the biggest challenge can also be a fun challenge.”
While the buy-in from the students will always be a work in progress, Koeninger said that the band is lucky to have extremely strong parental support.
He said that they have been invaluable to the program, “the parents that are here today fitting the uniforms, or the ones that are taking them home to wash them, or the parents that are buying snacks constantly for these kids to eat, because they realize that I’m a teacher and I can’t afford to pay every give every kid a snack, they’re what make things easier… I can just reach out and say, ‘Help.’ And there’s 10 parents who are ready to come help.”
The Scott High School Marching Band competed in its first competition of the season on Oct. 4. If you want to check them out, they’ll be out on Oct. 11 at the Campbell County Competition and at the Mid State Band Association Championships for Class AAA on Nov. 8 at West Clermont in Cincinnati. You can find the full schedule here.
You can also follow the Scott High School Music Department on Facebook for more updates.
Learn more about the program below:
