The John F. Kennedy High School marching band takes to the field prior to performing for the crowd during the game against Colonia held at John F. Kennedy High School in Iselin on Sept. 19. MATT DENTON With the crowd settled in and the Monroe Township High School football team set to begin its 2015 season, the Falcons marching band kicked off the season by playing “The Victors,” the song played before each home game.
Although the football team ultimately lost its Sept. 11 home opener, Martin Griffin, Monroe’s marching band director, said the band was able to feed off the crowd and came away with a good performance.
“Football is a little more rowdy kind of environment, so they can let loose a little bit and play a little more extra just because of the nature of the beast of who is watching you,” Griffin said.
Bands at virtually every high school in New Jersey, a busy competition state, will perform during football games, tasked with energizing crowds and the football team before the game and during halftime.
A member of the Colonia High School color guard dances up a storm during a routine before the game held at John F. Kennedy High School in Iselin on Sept. 18. The band will take part in six different band competitions this year, including “Best in State.” MATT DENTON Robert Clark, director of the Long Branch High School marching band, said the band’s performance has become an integral part of the football game.
“We have an amazing relationship with the football team and the athletic department, and it’s not that stereotypical band geek thing,” Clark said. “It’s not that here in Long Branch, and the football team actually requests songs from the band.
“We like the setup and we appreciate performing at halftime because we like playing for the hometown crowd.”
While performing for the home crowds is one thing, several times throughout the year marching bands vie against fellow bands in competitions. Many of the competitions local marching bands perform in are organized by US Band, a nonprofit based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that hosts marching band competitions in more than 25 states.
Justin Heimbecker, director of US Bands, said marching bands in New Jersey stand out against the rest of the country.
“We have more events in New Jersey than anywhere else in the country; we have more bands than anywhere else in the country,” Heimbecker said. “Our state championship has to be split into two venues because we can’t fit all the bands.
“We have great problems in that we can’t fit all the bands in one day,” he said.
Some of the competitions hosted by US Bands in 2015 include the Yamaha Cup at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 26 and competitions in Jackson, South Brunswick, North Brunswick, Monroe, East Brunswick, Old Bridge and the state championship in Piscataway.
Bill Grillo, marching band director at Rumson-Fair Haven High School, said he has his band focus more on entertaining the crowd at football games rather than on competitions.
“We have focused on doing more popular shows, we really try to play more popular music and more or less model ourselves after college-style marching bands,” Grillo said. “We are just concerned about our home crowd at Rumson- Fair Haven because those are the people we play for.
“We want to entertain them first before we worry about competition.”
Griffin says he approaches competitions as a measuring stick for the band, competing against other schools, and he gives the students some freedom to perform during football games.
“It is totally different, what they are doing there is a whole field show for the home crowd,” he said, adding that Monroe’s first competition will be Oct. 3 in South Brunswick.
However, Griffin said the most important performance would not occur for more than a year.
“We have been invited to go in 2016 to perform for the Pearl Harbor 75th anniversary parade in Hawaii,” Griffin said.
“So we will be going there in December of 2016 to represent the USS New Jersey. They have only one per state so we were asked to represent New Jersey.”
Monroe wasn’t the only area marching band honored with the opportunity to play during a national event. The Jackson Liberty High School marching band recently performed in Atlantic City during the Miss America Parade.
“As soon as the drum line transitioned from the cadence to the song, the crowd just erupted,” Alexa Weaver, one of the band’s drum majors, said. “The applause and shouts were sometimes louder than the music itself.
“The band and crowd fed off of each other; when they started applauding, we became louder, and then they returned the favor.”
Heimbecker said competitions give band members the same life lessons that sports give students.
“At the end of the day, the goal is to provide great experiences for the students,” he said. “As with any group activity in a scholastic setting, whether it is athletic or musical, I think when you belong to a group you learn a lot of things like teamwork, work ethic, persistence, reliability, perseverance.
“I think those life lessons really do transcend the activity.”
Grillo said the lessons learned serve the band members well after their high school careers end.
“If they are part of it for four straight years, I think the most important thing they learn is leadership,” Grillo said. “We nominate section leaders and drum majors each year, and they get their feet wet teaching younger students.
“What I like about it is when they go off to college there’s already an activity they can get involved in and meet a huge group of friends.”
Those lessons may soon be instilled in the students at Saint Joseph High School in Metuchen as music director Salvatore Ascolese said he hopes to have a marching band formed before the end of the current football season.
“We are basically in the beginning stages of getting a marching band going,” Ascolese said. “We have about 20 now, and once they see it, there is always more guys that want to jump on.
“We’re building a beautiful field; it’s going to be done hopefully this year. It’s getting everything together and getting some music that everybody enjoys and doing the best we can.”
According to Heimbecker, the main challenge facing music programs is funding, with music getting cut when state and federal aid decreases.
However, the overall popularity of marching bands remains steady despite some of the funding concerns.
“I think it is one of those timeless things that has been around for a long time and been popular for a long time,” Heimbecker said.
“The activity might change, the challenges might change, technology might change, but an old-fashioned American marching band is kids getting out there and working together and learning their instrument and being physically fit.”
Clark explained the difference between performing for the students during football games and competing against other schools.
“I think the biggest difference is, when you are in a competition the crowd is different,” Clark said. “The people are there specifically to see bands.”
Clark also said the majority of band members opt not to play in college, and the goals of the team are to instill lessons of teamwork, camaraderie and commitment in the students.
There are also some challenges in assembling a high-performing marching band, particularly with younger players.
“Usually a quarter of our students haven’t even set foot in the high school before they are a member of a team that is going to compete essentially at a varsity level,” Clark said.
“Being a competitive band, you have a freshman class coming in, they haven’t even taken a high school class yet; however, at the first football game they have to take that field and, maybe a week or two after, they are going to be adjudicated on the same field as all-state musicians.”
Clark said the band performed well during the Green Wave’s first home game, a 28-0 loss to Red Bank Catholic, and they will perform in their first competition of the year on Sept. 26 at MetLife Stadium.
Clark said much like other fall sports, the year for band members begins each August, concluding with a two-week band camp.
“The kids come and it is extensive training where we are supposed to get them marching, playing and understanding form and design all at once before they are taking a high school class,” Clark said.
Griffin said upperclassmen are leaned on early in camp to help the freshmen, who often struggle putting all the facets of marching band together.
“It is challenging; what we try to do is use our student leaders a lot to work with the newer kids extra before practice, after practice,” Griffin said. “The kids do pretty well learning the music by itself or learning the movement part by itself but the biggest challenge is putting it together.
“Especially for newer kids, they are used to sitting down and playing all the time in school. What they do in high school is, they are now asked to play standing up, moving around and outside.”
Another challenge for band directors is the difficulty in crafting the ideal combinations of musicians.
“In a perfect world, you’ll have full instrumentation because you’ll work in conjunction with your middle school and you kind of feed kids up,” Clark said. “It kind of works out and when it doesn’t, you find yourself rewriting music pretty quickly to make things work.
“We are just constantly rewriting and inputting stuff and saying, ‘Trumpets, you have to play this because we don’t have enough mellophones.’ We are constantly reorchestrating and rewriting music.”
Griffin also said in the past, he has approached students about changing instruments when there is a need in another section of the band.
He said because of the cost associated with the instruments, the students are able to use some of the school’s supply of instruments if they choose.
Clark also said much like a basketball team with a star point guard or a football team with a star wide receiver, he would craft his program to feature the stars.
“In my show this year I have a monster sax player, and it would be silly for me to not take advantage of the fact that kid plays that expressively,” he said. “I have to write and plan to make sure he is featured.”
While stars can be featured, Griffin said, unlike sports teams, every band member is featured throughout the performance.
“It is a unified effort, the difference is in sports you can always have kids who aren’t ready and aren’t playing,” he said. “We don’t do that, everybody is in, and everybody is performing the entire time.
“We don’t have any backups or alternates waiting for a shot.”
Anthony Limaldi, Howell band director, said being in the band is important to its members.
“For some it’s their absolute lives. It confirms what they want to do after high school.”
For others he said this will be the end of the road, they will not pursue their music beyond high school and they are in the band because “they love being a part of it.”
As far as playing at football games, “they love every part of it, they love being in front of the home crowd. It’s a priority. That’s why we’re here.”
Limaldi has been the band director for 13 years. There were 34 band members when he started. It’s now up to 85. His goal is 100.
The Howell band has a new theme each year. This year’s is the superheroes Invincible. The theme is a collective effort within the band with Limaldi having the final say. Together the band and director come up with the choreography and set designs.
As for the music, he said some of the songs are based on the strength of the band’s strong percussion and horn sections.
Limaldi also said the selections have “evolved” over the years from the standard marching songs. That’s why spectators may hear “Louie Louie,” “Paint It Black” and other more recent popular songs. Howell goes with AC/DC.
Sports writer Tim Morris contributed to this story.