Marching On

*This article was originally posted on the first DHS news site in September of 2020*

Every program at Davenport High School had odds to overcome during their inaugural year, and the Wolf Band was no different. Despite their small size, lack of resources, and a worldwide pandemic, the band managed to pull off a successful marching season and grow closer as a group.

COVID made the already difficult job of getting the program off the ground even harder for directors Jeffrey Keyes and Dean Ponseti. In addition to custom-made band masks, bell covers, and a disinfecting routine changing how practice looks, district social distancing measures affected the band’s performances and forced them to adapt their show to keep everyone safe.

“With COVID distancing regulations, I was unsure of how quickly everything would take off. I was impressed by how quickly things fell into place,” Keyes said.

Coronavirus wasn’t the only setback the Wolf Band had to face. The painting of their practice field was delayed several weeks. This meant that the band could not practice marching the sets of their show until the end of September. Still, the band was able to put on the opener of their show five days later, and premiered the first full performance on Nov. 18.

The Wolf Band’s population mirrored that of the campus with the majority of members being freshmen, which brought its own pros and cons. The lack of upperclassmen gave opportunity for younger students to take on more positions of responsibility that are typically given to juniors or seniors. Davenport’s drum majors, Noah Bliss and Lindsay Creel, are both sophomores.

“It was very much out of my comfort zone,” Creel said. “I decided to try out for this position because I wanted to be more involved in band than I had been in previous years, and I knew that it was a great opportunity to improve my leadership skills.”

These leadership skills were vital when it came to working with the freshmen, who had no prior experience marching.

“The biggest challenge of being a drum major was teaching all the freshmen how to march, because there were so few upperclassmen,” Bliss said.

Creel and Bliss, together with the rest of the student leadership team, were responsible for helping teach the younger members how to put a show together and setting the example for the band during practices.

The Wolf Band came out of a tumultuous fall season stronger than they went in. Working through the challenges ultimately brought them closer and taught them valuable lessons.

“The most important thing I learned is that it’s okay to make mistakes, but you should learn from them and try to improve,” Creel said.

The leadership team wanted to capitalize on this growing experience, and got to work building on the sense of community that had begun in its wake.

“The student leadership team did a great job of creating traditions for the group,” Keyes said. By establishing these traditions, which included a dismissal chant, band dances, and a locker decoration contest, the band grew into a family during the short time they had been together.

“The part of marching season that I enjoyed the most was… being a part of one big band family,” junior and band President Audrey Callenius said.

While change can be expected as the Wolf Band moves into concert season for the remainder of the school year, many things will also stay the same. The band will continue to keep as much social distance as possible both in class and on stage.

“We will be sitting a little further apart, but that will just put more responsibility on each individual as it will be harder to hide musically,” Keyes said. “I think it will just help us improve.”

It looks as if the most important thing that will not change is the band’s determination to make every challenge they face a chance to grow. If they can translate that during their concert season, Davenport can expect their Wolf Band to be even more successful on stage than they were on the field.