DUNLAP —
The 2010 marching season will be the same but different for the Concord High School Marching Minutemen - after 22 years as an assistant, Scott Spradling has taken the podium as band director.
“It has been excellent and scary and everything in between,” Spradling joked.
The remainder of the staff is intact and has been a part of Concord music for a long time, but the standards and high expectations remain the same.
“The show is our competitor,” Spradling said. “We have to learn the show and be able to execute to a high level. If we can do those things the other competitions take care of themselves.”
This year’s show, Radiant Voices, will be a departure from Concord’s usual type of music. It is an original composition by Richard Saucedo and is more abstract.
“We want to make an artistic statement through music,” Spradling said. “It is a blend of different styles and crosses musical genres.”
The music will be challenging for the students and will include some singing and other unique sounds.
“It is not a real obvious show but it will be entertaining and intriguing,” he said.
The band overall is younger and bigger this year, with 182 students, but that should not be a problem.
“From what I can tell so far, they are not afraid to work hard,” Spradling said.
Even when dealing with sweltering summer heat during rehearsals, the students didn’t say a word, just went about their work.
“My challenge for the year is to help assist the kids and the staff to move in the right direction to perform at a high level of excellence,” Spradling said. “That’s all we can ask.”
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Sophomore Rachel Brown plays vibraphone during Concord High School band rehearsal Tuesday afternoon. CHAD WEAVER | THE GOSHEN NEWS
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VIDEO: Fairfield High School Press Box
The building trades program at Fairfield High School is tackling a different project this winter, as they construct the school’s new press box for their football field.
According to teacher Jeff McClure, this is different from other years.
“Normally we build a house every year, but in this case, we didn’t have a house to build this year, due to the economy and all,” he said.
So instead the school gave the class the press box project.
According to principal Ben Tonagel, the project is a “win-win” for both the school and the students.
“Our students get to learn and contribute something to the school corporation,” he said.
Tonagel said that community fundraising and donations of building supplies also helped and has allowed the school to replace it’s old, aging press box.
Students work on the project daily, in two shifts, in the morning and in the afternoon.
For students it is not only a learning opportunity, but a chance to get real world experience, as well as give back to their school.
“This is pretty much just what is going to happen on a construction site, if they get out there and it’s hands on, they like that, they get to do, rather than just learn from a book or video,” McClure said,
“I like [being a part of the construction],” Austin Bontrager, a senior in the class said. “I’ll come to games and say ‘hey, I built that.’”
Junior Travis Eicker agrees.
“Building something on school property, [that] you’ll be able to point out that you built it, that’s a pretty cool experience,” he said.
For the students, they may get more benefits, other than just bragging about being a part of the construtction.
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