This is something I sent to the High School Marching Band this morning. I would encourage you to read it because it has a lot of good life lessons and the reasons why band is so important to your education here.

A few days ago, I told you all that this could be our strongest and best performance ever. I still believe that is true. Please allow me a few minutes to tell you why I believe that 100%.

Last night was a huge experience for all of us, your directors included. There are many strong lessons to learn here. The first is a very real life lesson: you don’t always get what you want or what you believe you deserve. Here is a scenario that you will probably experience in your lifetime. No matter what career you go into, you won’t always get what you think you deserve. Say, for example, you are working at your job and work really hard to earn a promotion that you really want. When the time comes, you find out you didn’t get it, and maybe someone you think is less deserving did. Does that make you any less valuable or important? Absolutely not. What you need to do in that scenario is reflect, control the things you can control, and create new ideas to get where you want to be.

This is also our scenario. Maybe some of you this morning don’t feel like you deserved the evaluation you got. I don’t believe that is true. I got to school at 5:20 a.m. this morning to write you this letter because I was excited to do it. I really wanted to talk to all of you after the festival yesterday, but we were never all in one place. Here are my thoughts from yesterday.

1. This was our best performance in many, many years. I don’t believe our adjudicators were wrong. I think we set a goal, succeeded, and grew.
   
   
2. NO ONE had a more entertaining and involved performance than we did. This festival is an evaluation, not a competition, and I don’t mean that we did “better” than other bands. But we truly involved the entire stadium in our show. No one else that evening could do what we did. The constant applause and participation from the audience were amazing. YOU had them all involved. You played and performed with passion and excitement that brought the entire stadium into our show.I debated for a ridiculous amount of time about our theme and how it could work. Having an unknown variable in a show is a scary thing for a band director. I can only imagine what it was like for you as a performer to see and hear that reaction. Oddly enough, that could also have been part of our scoring issue last night. The reaction from the crowd was so strong that I could see how it might have been a distraction and kept us from executing some things we knew very well. Which brings me to our next topic.
   
   
3. The adjudicators were not wrong. After reading the sheets, I can agree with all of it. Here is what you don’t know and what I am very pleased to share with you. Our music score was all A’s. That is huge! That was our weakest score last year, and you 100% turned that around. In my opinion, this is the most important evaluation out of the three. You all nailed this one, and I couldn’t be happier. Our weakest spot was in marching, and that is not to say we did poorly at all. It ended up being a B+. We didn’t execute some of our fundamentals. Why? It could be for many reasons. We knew what to do and how to do it well. As I mentioned earlier, that huge reaction from the crowd could easily have turned some of our focus away. The fundamentals we did not execute as well as we could have were traverse marching and squaring our shoulders to the sidelines, avoiding extraneous movement during still sections at attention, and stepping off together to stay in phase and in step. If we had a “redo,” I know you could hit every one of those because we worked hard on them. As I reminded you earlier this week, you perform what you practice, which is why the fundamentals must be a constant part of what we do in every rehearsal. We will take this as a learning experience and continue to grow from here. There is nothing wrong with being knocked down a little. With the right mindset and determination, this experience can help us grow and become even stronger. It is not about getting knocked down, but how you get back up. So let’s continue to push, evolve, and grow like I know you can.
   
   
4. You may not know this, but this is the most complex show we have ever done. This show has 11 more charts than any show we have done before! The visuals and details we added to the show have never been done here before. At one point, I thought, “OK, is this too much?” I am glad I went forward and did not scale back because you did it and really pushed the envelope of what we can do.
   
   
5. I want to tell you about all the things you don’t see and how fortunate we are. We have things happening in our band that most band directors can’t even dream of, much less achieve. In my 10 years at Coopersville, this is without a doubt our strongest band. Mrs. Borst and I noticed this at band camp. Here are things we observed over the season. Leadership. You have taken control of your learning. You are the ones out there making corrections, teaching our younger players, and making them feel welcome and appreciated. We have noticed that even when some of our strong leaders are absent, someone is always there, ready to step in and push forward. This is culture, and it takes a long time for a program to achieve. The foundation we have built over the years and clearly demonstrated this year will carry forward into generations to come. The things you do without being prompted are amazing. At this point, I think every section has its own social media page. You all put really great things on there that are inclusive of everyone. I truly enjoy seeing them all, the togetherness you share, and the things you are proud of. I even appreciate some of the fun jokes you aim at me. The meme with the person deciding what button to press in regard to the drill on “Hey Jude” was hilarious.You organize and plan things in your groups. Whether it is a section get together for ice cream, a gathering at someone’s house, or even something as simple as taking section pictures at the homecoming dance, these things show your character and commitment. The pop up breakfast at band camp was amazing. These are all things we don’t ask you to do, but you do because you care. Mrs. Borst, the Band Boosters, and I were standing back in awe yesterday at your work ethic. Mr. Nelson came in early to make sure the trailer loading process was going to happen correctly. I just stood back with him, and we watched you organize, work together, and load everything up yourselves. Mr. Nelson assumed he would be working for a long time to make that happen. As it turns out, he didn’t have to do anything at all. You did it. You worked together. You collaborated as a team to make it all happen. No one was complaining. Instead, you were searching for ways to help. That was outstanding. Mrs. Borst and I stood back at the end as you loaded the trailer and saw that same sense of teamwork and leadership. At one point, we looked at each other and said, “THIS is where we are supposed to be.” A band of discipline and character that makes good decisions without being prompted. We are truly very proud teachers this morning. Perhaps the last thing that was amazing last night happened after most of you left. Our evening custodian came in to check on us. She is someone we know quite well, and she will always tell us the truth. When we saw her coming into the office, we thought, “Oh no, what was left out, or what happened?” Instead, she came in and told us how happy she was when a group our size came in and left everything clean and organized. She told us not many groups in the school do not do that, and she was very impressed. That made me feel really good as I drove home last night and reflected on all the amazing things you have done and accomplished this year.
   
   

So where do we go next? The answer is easy. We push forward, learn, and continue to grow while appreciating everyone in the band and how we work together. Our resolve is strong. We noticed that as we walked back to the trailer and had conversations with many of you. You were ready for what is next. I had people ask if they could come in during seminar today to work on new things, continue to add to the culture of the group, and expand the traditions of our band. Amazing. We are truly in awe of all of you. Coopersville is the best place to teach, and that is because of you! We couldn’t be more proud to be your band directors. Well done to each of you! You are amazing.

Thank you for reading all of this. Please feel free to email me your thoughts and experiences. I would love to read them and share them if you are willing. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s rehearsal and where we go with our next couple of games, auditorium show, and potential playoff performances. The best is yet to come!