Southeasternish Pennsylvania. We didn’t have many football players who doubled as band geeks, but the few who did, did not march at halftime. They marched in competitions, but during halftime we just marched with a hole where they were supposed to be.
Urban Texas. Our football/band kids march.
Frankly, we are a small 4a school pretending we are a 5A school. No organization can be exclusive: we don’t have enough kids to go around. This is both good and bad: it’s good because it means that we don’t really have “tryouts” and kids can use a wide range of school activities to develop themselves. Want to learn to swim? Join the swim team. Want to learn to play golf? Join the golf team! Everyone who wants to be has some sort of role in the musical, etc. it’s really great. On the other hand we never really rock at anything, and the kids never have the opportunity to be part of something incredible. We have to be content with competing against our own record. It’s a trade-off.
I went to High school 25 years ago. The directors then retired long ago. The band was taken over by a couple of their former students. It’s a combination of that and changing attitudes.
Huh. Trying to remember; memory very foggy…
I grew up in a small town in rural western Wisconsin, attended its highschool in the mid '90s. There were about 120 kids in my class; call it 500 for the entire high school. Our band wasn’t huge (but was pretty good); our football team was small and was mediocre. While we had a marching band, we generally marched only in parades and such (yep, I was a band nerd, but didn’t play football; girls generally didn’t). We did put on a halftime show during football season, but only once per year at homecoming. I can’t remember whether any football players who were also band members took part in the halftime show, but they very well might have. Since we did it only that game, and since halftime for the homecoming game was extended anyway (I think there was some presentation of the homecoming court as well, or some such. I do remember football players being on the court and being presented on the field in their pads and jerseys.), football players probably were welcome to join the band, if they wanted. (If they did so, they didn’t change, so they’d march in their pads.)
During the football season, the band did have a pep band every home game that played during breaks in the first half (at halftime, we went back to the school to stow our instruments). Any football players that were also band members didn’t take part in this, for obvious reasons.
I’m from the same planet that you are. Absolutely not. The football team was expected to win, so They were otherwise occupied, doing whatever they do during halftime.
During the off season, they could march as much as they wanted to. But definitely not during an actual football game.
No. WE who were in the band had to go march for their game, but they didn’t march WITH us or anything. Los Alamos, New Mexico.
That’s completely different from how my high school did it. Marching band was an extracurricular activity, not a class, and as such they had a 3-week band camp (3-5 hours/day, 5 days/week) in mid-to-late summer, and 2-3 hours 3 days a week of after-school practice every week through the season, plus football games and competitions.
Our football team also had a couple weeks of camp in the summer and practice 2-3 days a week, with a lot of overlap with band practice. (In fact, our band almost never practiced on the actual field because the football team was on it.) Even getting enough time away from football practice to be on something that only met once a week like the academic team was often problematic. Trying to do two things as time-intensive as band and football at the same time…it would have been suicide.
Make it 50 members (small school, my class had ~65 people total) and that was my high school. Yes, different band director before/after.
Before our director had his heart attack, our marching band practiced after school, went to competitions, etc.. He really slowed down after that heart attack.
I really missed out. I only got post-heart-attack director. Still a lot of fun music-making, but a lot less competing, both marching band and concert.
Had it been that way at my high school, the football players probably wouldn’t have been involved at all. Marching band was an integral part of the band class (there was just one band class), and since it was an actual class it was impossible for a football player to be stopped from taking it, but it was also impossible for the band director to require any out of class participation that took place during anything to do with football. Academics came before extracurricular activities (so until the school day ended, band took priority), but competition came before non-competition (so as long as it was out of school hours, football took priority). (The band was booked to do a competition once (it ended up being rained out), but practices for league competitions also took precedence over practices for non-league competitions.)
There were also a couple of soccer players in the band once the soccer teams were founded. There weren’t as many time conflicts there, at least during the first year. (The soccer coach that year was also the assistant band director. No, it wasn’t exactly a huge school.)
I’ve never been to a football game in my life and spent most of my high school years at a small school that didn’t even have a football team or a marching band, but I would have assumed that a football player couldn’t also march with the band at halftime. I don’t know that I ever would have heard about it either way, though. I went to high school in Wisconsin, FWIW.
A similar situation came up in an episode of Glee last year, where the choir (which has several football players among its members) was asked to perform with the marching band at halftime for the Big Game. I remember posters in the thread for the episode saying that it was beyond plausibility that the football players would both play in the game and perform at halftime. I figured it wasn’t any wackier than plenty of other things that happen on Glee, but it’s surprising to learn that there really are some schools where football players also perform as musicians in the halftime show. On Glee the football players did keep their football uniforms on the whole time, although they did have to apply zombie makeup – they were performing “Thriller”: - YouTube
Central Indiana, mid- to late-80s. A small number of football players marched with the band, in football gear. At least in that era, the band was a bigger, more successful deal than the football team. 250ish members, consistent state finalists. The football team? Well, they won a game now and again…
No in Oklahoma. I know a couple of people who had to make the choice: Band, or football? They mostly went with football.
Same thing happened when a band member became a cheerleader. Couldn’t do both.
The marching season and the football season were the same thing. The band director wouldn’t have wanted someone marching in a football uniform, and I’m pretty sure (football being a big big BIG thing there) that the football coach wouldn’t have wanted a distracted player.
However, once football/marching season was over, football players (or cheerleaders) were perfectly entitled to be in the band. They would have had to sign up for spring semester only, though.
I went to a rural high school in northwest Ohio. The band was, in effect, three different groups, although most of the people were in all of them. There was concert band during the school year, except for football season. This included some people who played instruments that didn’t work well in marching bands. Then there was football band during football season. The people who played football simply weren’t part of the football band. It was understood that someone who played in the band most of the year and played football obviously couldn’t also be in football band, and those people spent the halftime just like all the other football players. There was some switching of instuments by people who were in football band. There were less woodwinds in football band, more brass, and a different distribution of percussion. The reason that it would have been impossible for the football players to be in the football band included the fact that the afterschool practices for football band that were held outside where marching and formations were learned were held immediately after school at the same time as football practice. The football players rejoined the band after football season to become part of concert band. Concert band included some local concerts and district and state competitions.
The third group was summer band. They marched at local parades and festivals. The instrumentation was like football band, but the football players were included. There were some practice sessions during the summer to learn songs and improve our marching. I don’t remember anymore if some of the people stayed out of band during the summer.
Yes, football players could march in the band. We had a few guys who did it while I was there. This is in northeast Ohio. Our school had a great music program and a very well respected (and large) band. Our marching band had 330 members my senior year, which at the time was the largest in the state (I know of a few that are larger now in Ohio). Half the people came to the football games solely for the halftime show. Our after school band rehearsals did not conflict with football practice. We let the football players march in their football uniform for halftime shows (band shows and such, of course, they had to be in the band uniform).