Fairfield band marches on with new leader and more members

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Fairfield band director Scott Garner takes a close look at his group’s progress during a recent practice at the school. JUSTIN CRIPE | THE GOSHEN NEWS

September 6, 2010

By BRIDGET FRYMAN Correspondent The Goshen News Mon Sep 06, 2010, 11:56 PM EDT

BENTON — The 2010 marching season will be a new year for the Fairfield Marching Pride – new director, new uniforms, more new members and even new music.

Former assistant Scott Garner selected music from the band Muse for his first year at the helm.

“It seems to be music that fits our approach to marching band,” Garner said. “We try to take what would be traditional and put a spin on it.”

The show is called Rise Up and the drill will show that in a literal way with nine sets of stairs on the field. Several students were familiar with the music and were surprised to find out Garner had Muse on his iPod, he said with a laugh.

“I wasn’t expecting them to know who they were because it’s not mainstream,” he said. “I picked it because I felt like the students could really get excited and get behind it.”

The band will take the field in new uniforms that were designed to be more versatile, so things can be moved around or snapped to it with each year’s theme. The old uniforms would have required cutting or sewing to do that, he said.

The band is younger and larger this year, with 75 students compared to last year’s 60. The band is well balanced but graduated a decent amount of talent last year, Garner said.

“It is definitely rewarding when you see others who have been in the background stepping up and taking leadership roles,” he said.

After a 7th place finish at Class C state finals last year, band members’ biggest challenge will be keeping their expectations in check.

“Ever since we bumped up to C we knew it would be much more difficult to break into state finals,” Garner said. “Yes we made it last year, but our goal needs to be doing our very best in putting out a creative and fun show.”

Garner said his challenge will be adjusting to the additional duties that go along with being band director without the help of an assistant. His old position was eliminated due to state budget cuts.

“My biggest challenge will be having to take care of all the administrative responsibilities while making sure it doesn’t interfere with my ability to teach the kids. That has to be my priority,” he said.

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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.
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For the students, they may get more benefits, other than just bragging about being a part of the construtction.
“Maybe they’ll let me sit in it a couple times during football games,” Bontrager said, “[But] I don’t know if they’ll let me.”

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Fairfield band marches on with new leader and more members

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