WHS band receives “I” rating at Kansas State Fair; gigs start to come its way
by Amber Schmitz, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington High School band, consisting of 37 ensemble members and four color guard, traveled to the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson and received a I rating recently.
“We normally do pretty well with that particular performance,” said Band Director Ben Olson, who is in his second teaching year here. “Last year we also received a I.”
The first performance was a parade competition, where the band marched down Main Street of Hutchinson for about six blocks and played the school fight song. They were judged on stepping, line spaces, drum line, drum majors and color guard.
“It was a great performance to see where we’re at and what we need to work on,” Olson said. “They did really well, but it was not a perfect performances. We will know our spot as we progress.”
This year, the band also performed a secondary performance, which included two songs from their marching band show, a melody of Queen songs and “Dream On” by Aerosmith.
“We are planning a bigger marching band performance in October, so this was a great way to see where we’re at,” Olson said. “They did really well and worked really, really hard for those ratings we received, but we still want to be better.”
The parade performance lasted 10 minutes, including drum line cadences. The other performance lasted about five minutes, but they play really fast.
“I think last year it was a learning experience for everybody, how they play and how I teach,” Olson said. “Comparitively, they are playing 100% better, now we have found the rhythm between the music director and ensemble. The progress is amazing with what they worked toward and where they are now.”
The recent mattress sale raised $5,000 for the band.
“The marching parade performance was really, really good,” Olson said. “We spent quite a bit of time working on the fundamentals to make sure we’re in step and on the correct foot. I drilled them a lot in the first part of camp, and we will continue as the year goes on.”
Olson said the performance at the fairground was pretty average.
“It was pretty average, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good, there were some balance issues,” Olson said. “We weren’t playing as one band, with a few individuals, you could hear just their sound, and we need to hear the sound of the band together as one. We know that’s an issue, so we are working on that. The individuals who stood out backed up, and the others stepped forward, so now we have a good balance in band. We have learned a lot about our sound to learn how to blow the judges away. When we came back from the fair, we knew what we had to do, so far it’s been awesome.”
For the most part, Olson said, all three of their songs are memorized, and they are working into movement for football games.
” We will do one of our songs on Friday,” Olson said. “For the last game of the year, will do a full show, as well as take our performance to Arkalalah. Then in November, we have been invited to play halftime of the Southwestern game. We’re getting noticed, that’s pretty cool. We want to get noticed in a big way, that’s what our hope it.”
