OHS, PHS take part in Bands of America
Oct. 7—Odessa and Permian high schools will be taking part in the 2022 Bands of America West Texas Regional Championship at Astound Broadband Stadium Saturday.
Hosted by the Midland Legacy High School Band and Boosters, the Bands of America West Texas Regional Championship will feature 28 marching bands in preliminary competition.
A panel of nationally recognized music educators and marching band experts will evaluate the bands. The top 12 scoring bands will advance to the evening finals competition. The event will include an exhibition performance by the West Texas A&M University The Sound of West Texas Buffalo Marching Band, a news release said.
OHS will be the first on the field at 7:30 a.m., Band Director Sonia Campos said.
"This will be my first Bands of America competition as a director of bands at a high school, so it's definitely exciting times," Campos said. "We're definitely looking forward to it. The kids have been working extremely hard. We just can't wait to get out there and showcase what they've been working on."
They cannot go past eight minutes, but their full show is around 7 minutes and 15 seconds, she said.
They started practicing for this during summer band in July and have been at it ever since. "The kids have really taken on a different gear the past couple of weeks and we're really excited to see what they can make happen after working so hard for so long," Campos said.
She added that the students are equally as excited about the face-off between OHS and Permian High School in the rivalry game today as they are about Saturday's competition.
"That's all the hype that there is right now, honestly, is the Permian game and how we're leading into this big competition month, so they're definitely excited for the Permian game. They're really looking forward to watching the Permian show, slightly of course, because we'll be performing as well in the halftime show. But they're really excited to see what they've been up to and I'm sure our Permian friends are just as excited to see what we've been up to," Campos said.
This is the only Bands of America contest that both high schools will participate in, but BOA has regional contests all around the country.
"But there is an opportunity for them to make the finals performance in the evening time, so the prelims go all the way until 5 p.m. on that day, and we're the first group to perform at 7:30 a.m.," Campos said.
The students will perform and stay all day for the preliminaries to observe the other groups.
"It's a great teaching tool, learning for the students, as well, to see other 14, 15, 16, 17 year olds do the same things that they're trying to do," Campos said. She wants students to talk about what the other groups are learning to ensure that they're always learning.
"It's definitely a journey and we're definitely enjoying that journey. We're excited for the end result, but we're taking every moment in and we're really ensuring that we are in the moment, regardless if it's a 7 a.m. rehearsal or a 6 p.m. rehearsal. They really have been working really hard and I'm really enjoying just being part of the process with this group of kids. They're definitely special, especially with this being my inaugural season as a head band director," she added.
PHS Band Director Jeff Whitaker will bring a little more than 300 students to the contest.
"The contest itself is one of our most exciting events that we get to go to every year," Whitaker said.
His band will perform at 9:15 a.m. and they will also have about 8 minutes.
"We'll have bands from out of state here — New Mexico, Oklahoma and we'll have groups that we would never see at any UIL contest," Whitaker said, adding that there are smaller class schools, like 5A, that have wonderful band programs.
"It's really a unique opportunity for our kids to experience what band is like at other schools and see what they are able to create in those other programs. On the other side of that is our adjudicators," who come from out of state and have never seen the Permian band, Whitaker said.
The band will be able to get feedback from them and when the contest is done, they can conference with the judges.
"We'll bring our video from the contest and we'll show it to our judge and they'll walk us through that even though we've already gotten their commentary and we've heard what they have to say about it. We'll get to have questions for them and they can ask us questions. We'll get to discuss new ideas and new directions that we can go and it certainly helps us grow as a program and it helps us as a staff grow as teachers to get that feedback from these professionals," Whitaker said.
Overall, he said the band has been a joy to work with.
"It's exciting to see what we do and it seems from the students' standpoint that they seem excited, even in a performance. For example this morning, as we get closer to the contest we'll do bigger runs and start doing the more Hollywood side, I guess I should say of their performance," Whitaker said.
He added that he's looking forward to seeing all the bands that are there. But he tries to get caught up in what the other groups are doing.
They are planning to participate in the Duncanville Marching Invitational, which PHS last went to in 2019. Whitaker said it fundamentally changed them as a program because they got to compete against powerhouse bands from the DFW area.
Like OHS, Permian will head out on little sleep to the Bands of America event "and mixing it up with those other schools is going to be a different type of experience," Whitaker said.
Campos earned a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Texas at Austin and was in band for five years. Her instrument is the French horn.
She is in her 10th year as a band director. Campos started at Goddard Junior High in Midland and was at Crockett Middle School before moving to OHS. The transition from middle to high school has been different, she said.
"There's different battles, if you will, and there's just a different approach. You have our kids at the high school level that already have a set of skills, and you're just trying to build upon those. At the middle school level, they have no skills, per se, if you will, in the music world. So you're building those from scratch. Those are beautiful times as well. So I love both middle school and high school, so the fact that I get the opportunity to be the head high school band director and still go help our feeder system, that's the moneymaker right there is just being able to see the true process from beginner level all the way up to high school level. It's pretty neat," Campos said.
She helps out at Bowie and Crockett middle schools and has some Crockett musicians at OHS this year. "I would say 60% of the program here. ... We lost Ector just due to it becoming a charter, so it's been a challenge but we're small but mighty is how I like to describe us because they've done a heck of a job; just stepping up to the plate and just really exploring their extremes and being okay with being pushed to the limits and really achieving a lot just with volume, sound and ability to march and play at the same time, so we keep growing each and every rep that we put in and it's a beautiful thing to see," Campos said.
They now have a total of 185 students in band, which is up from what they had this summer.
Campos is looking forward to taking her students to see bands not only from this area, but other parts of Texas and New Mexico. She's looking forward to seeing the band from Duncanville and Clovis, N.M.
"They've had much success at BOA (Bands of America) in the past, so we're really excited to have our students be able to experience that," Campos said.
Music for All will present the Bands of America West Texas Regional Championship at Astound Broadband Stadium, 801 North Loop 250 West, Midland, TX 79703.
Ticket prices are $23 for prelims, $23 for finals, or $36 for an all-day pass when ordered in advance. Tickets are $7 more per ticket when purchased on-site at the event. Children 10 years old or younger are admitted free for general admission seating.
Visit marching.musicforall.org/midland22 to see the event schedule and order tickets online. This is a chance for people to see a lot of bands at once.
"Anybody should really take the time to support the fine arts, particularly the band programs. They're just so important. Fine Arts in general are just so important to the well being and growth of our younger generations. I think everybody should be in a fine arts class at some point in their lives," Campos said.
