Like football team, Badger band hopes fall is its time to shine
"Kids want to be with other kids who are successful and who think the same way and have high standards." -- Richard Hooper LHS band director
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

PHOTO BY GABE WOLF Senior drum major Amanda Garrison directs the Badger band at halftime of Friday's home football game against Taylor. Miss Garrison and fellow senior drum major Alan Sapien lead a band program of 122 students, the largest in director Richard Hooper's tenure at Lampasas.

Freshman Shelby Davis has been in the Lampasas High School marching band only about a month, but she already has lofty goals.

"We have to go first division (the UIL's top marching honor) at state," said Miss Davis, a piccolo player.

With 121 other equally motivated students, band director Richard Hooper believes football fans this season may see one of the LHS squad's best halftime shows in years.

"I think we're being successful on all levels, especially the high school," Hooper said. "Kids want to be with other kids who are successful and who think the same way and have high standards."

The band will bring a touch of Ireland to stadiums this fall, performing "A Celtic Legend." The three-section piece, which the Badger band will play both at halftimes and at UIL marching competitions, features seven tunes from the "Riverdance" show.

PHOTO BY GABE WOLF The Badger band and Illusion Color Guard perform the band's marching competition show "A Celtic Legend" at halftime of Friday's home game versus Taylor. The band will chase area and state UIL berths this fall, hoping to follow the success of the color guard, second in state last year.

"It's really cool," Hooper said.

Miss Davis and senior Jessica Kriegel, an alto saxophonist and Illusion Color Guard member, said they like the contest arrangement's cheery tone and alternating fastslow tempo. After Hooper and other staff cull a list of about 40 potential halftime shows down to four or five, students vote on the arrangement the band will play al- most daily throughout the fall.

"We all kind of come to a consensus," Hooper said of the music selection process. "If we don't really like (the arrangement), it can be tedious just to get up every morning."

The high school musicians also help choose their drum majors, as student votes count for 25 percent of audition scores. Seniors Alan Sapien and Amanda Garrison will lead their peers this season.

Illusion Color Guard members will enhance the music's Celtic flair with Irish peasant costumes and flags representing Ireland. The band director is considering adding a violin or fiddle part at the end of the halftime show, as well.

Performances will begin with a soprano saxophone solo by Stephen Grant.

"It's just different," Hooper said. "It will be a sound you're not used to hearing."

The band is becoming familiar with winning, however. Hooper believes Badger marchers can earn the first-division regional rating necessary to advance to the Oct. 27 UIL area championships at Round Rock ISD Stadium. If Lampasas qualifies for the area round, the Badger band will compete against squads from Austin to Dallas for two state berths.

"I'm expecting us to get to area," he said. "Once we get to area, we're going to see some bands that are among the best in the state."

As with most 4A band directors, Hooper considers the color guard instrumental in his squad's marching success. Illusion Color Guard, led by assistant high school band director Nancy Norris, won the state championship two years ago and took second last season.

"They've got some very serious technique going on," Hooper said.

The band director also hopes "A Celtic Legend" will highlight the progress of high school percussion instructor Robert Leyva's keyboard, marimba, xylophone, vibraphone and bells players. The band placed stronger emphasis on percussion at the end of last school year and into the summer, Hooper said, and he expects significant improvement from the section.

"This year there's a lot of exposure for those kids," he said. "They've done an amazing job. (The marching show) will be very percussion-intensive."

No band can succeed with just one talented section, though, Hooper said. From the marching team to the jazz band, directed by Glenn Grant, musicians learn to meld the various instruments into a harmonious band.

"It's all intermingled," said Hooper. "Failure of any one section means failure for the group as a whole. These kids are very unselfish."

As the only freshman in her section, Miss Davis said she appreciated upperclassmen's guidance seven-hour-a-day practices began Aug. 13.

"It was really different" from middle school, said the freshman. "The band is so much bigger and friendlier."

Band members especially benefit from their peers' support when games and marching contests sap studying time on weekends, Miss Kriegel said.

"You learn to use a lot of your spare time" to finish homework, the senior said.

After away games, students often do not finish unpacking at the LHS band hall until 1 a.m. Although time on the road can prove challenging, hours spent together as a band help students bond, Miss Davis added.

Musicians also savor their part of the Friday night game atmosphere.

"It's exciting because you can play and feel good about cheering the football players," Miss Kriegel said.

Athletes can tell the difference a band makes, Hooper said, as Badger football players found out when the band had to miss a Saturday Killeen game to compete at a regional marching contest.

"We had reports that it was very, very quiet and was almost like a scrimmage because there was no noise," said the band director.

Badger musicians will give fans something extra to anticipate as the football season progresses. The band played portions of its eightminute halftime show in the first two football games of the season and plans to deliver the whole program in upcoming weeks.

Once the squad has played the entire "A Celtic Legend" routine, players will begin focusing on small details -- the way instruments point, how musicians march and where their feet point -- in prepara- tion for the Oct. 20 regional marching contest at Waco ISD Stadium.

"Each week as people come to ball games we'll add more, and it will be more precise," Hooper said.

One of the band's first tests will come Sept. 29, when the squad will attend the Burnet Marching Contest as a warmup for the regional competition. Hooper and Miss Davis aren't the only ones confident the Badgers can field a competitive marching team.

Miss Kriegel toured this summer with Drum Corps International, which calls itself "Marching Music's Major League," along with musicians from across the United States, Canada, England and Japan. She believes LHS's new talent will complement the experience she and other seniors have gained.

"Our freshmen are just as strong as the older people," Miss Kriegel said, "and that's a good thing."