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Back on the march: Houghton pep band preparing for season

Houghton pep band preparing for season

By Garrett Neese 4 min read

HOUGHTON -- More than a month before their debut fall football performance, and even longer before the school year starts, the Houghton High School pep band was out on the football field.

In what has become an annual tradition, the band held a four-day camp last week to build camaraderie and rehearse songs and routines for the upcoming year. This is the sixth year for the camp, which runs two-and-a-half hours on Monday through Thursday nights in the last week of July.

"The football season is starting sooner and sooner," said band director Kelly Fontaine. "Instead of being ready for our last game, we'd like to be ready a little sooner than that."

About 75 people have registered for band so far this year, Fontaine said. About 96% were able to attend last week's camp.

The day starts with a warm-up exercise to help band members learn more about each other, and concludes with a typical summer camp game. In between, players split off into their sections before a full rehearsal on the field.

"The main point of the whole thing is to introduce everyone to marching and help everyone get a head start on the new music so they're ready for the season," said Mercedes Gregersen, a senior trumpet player. "And games, even though they're not musically based, they're still important because cooperation is a big part of the field drills; we all have to be in sync. So getting to know each and be really comfortable with each other."

The games also let the band share their music with community members who might not come to their more formal concerts, said Sara Neva, a sophomore trumpet player.

"If someone's coming in to watch the football games, they're also going to get a chance to hear us, and we want to sound great," she said.

The pep band had been able to play in the stands last year for basketball and a few football games. And they were able to get a small amount of marching done while rehearsing on the field. But for about half the students, this season will be their first experience doing a field routine.

"The freshmen haven't even done a parade before, so it was really hard to learn the terminology," Neva said. "But over the week, it's become much clearer and we're getting much better."

For its performance on the field, the band is rehearsing three new songs, built around the theme of one-hit wonders: Nena's "99 Red Balloons," a-ha's "Take On Me" and the Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)."

"I found '99 Red Balloons and thought, 'How can I incorporate this?'," Fontaine said.

As camp wrapped up Thursday, the band polished their maneuvers, which might send them marching leftward or rightward, or swirling along the midfield in an oval.

"The thing I like most about concert band is the complexity of the music, which means I never really get into pep band music," Gregersen said. "But adding more stuff like this and doing section-focused things really helps."

They topped things off with two more games. In one, band members split into groups, held hands, and tried to wriggle a hula hoop around the circle. They finished with a brief, all-out water balloon fight.

While Fontaine ran the music side of things, volunteers, which included parents and Fontaine's husband, D.J. Fontaine, organized the games and helped with supplies.

"These kids adore her," said Sherrie Vorbeck, whose son Ruebyn Mensah is a freshman trumpet player. "I don't think there's any other teacher out there that has classes this size that can do this."

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