MANSFIELD — You could hear them before you could see them. Drums. Trumpets. Trombones. Clarinets.
A smattering of parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends sat in the stands at Arlin Field — everyone there for the marching band.
Students in matching orange t-shirts marched from the high school down Fourth Street playing their unofficial anthem — “Eye of the Tiger.” As they rounded the corner into the stadium, they lowered their instruments and declared in a half song, half chant: “We are the Tygers! The mighty, mighty Tygers!”
The Tyger Marching Band opened its season not with a football game, but with a showcase. The group of nearly 60 students performed their first halftime show of the season last Friday — a trio of Bruno Mars hits.
It’s a new tradition introduced this year by band directors Christian Watson and Matt Nowak.
“I really wanted to give the kids a chance to show the community and their parents what we’ve been working on for the past two weeks and kind of put them in the hot seat for a night before the season starts,” said Watson, beginning his second year as the band’s head director.
Drum major Tyree Dillon led the charge onto the field, kicking up his heels and twirling a baton so large it looked more like a scepter.
Dillon is also the band’s vice president — one of the new student leadership roles put in place this season.
“We want the kids to have as much ownership and investment in what they do as humanly possible,” Watson said.
“I think it teaches a lot of great life skills. It’s not easy —peer-to-peer leadership can have some challenges, but I think it’s totally worth it.”
New roles allow students to develop leadership skills, take ownership
Just three weeks into the season (one week of leadership camp and two of regular band camp), Watson said student leaders are already making things their own.
“We’ll have leadership meetings all the time, and they come up with ideas and we implement it together,” Watson said. “So things aren’t coming from the top down, they’re coming from within the group.”
Band president Kaitlyn Lendeman, a senior clarinet player, said she’s excited the ensemble is more “student-ran.”
“We kind of work together to assist the directors. So the problems, they go through us and then they go to them,” she said.
“We work together and we take attendance for games and practices. I conduct the (National) Anthem.”
Lendeman and Dillon were appointed after interviews with the director. Instrument captains were elected by their peers.
On the drumline, co-captains Jaxcyn Lawhorn and Lukasz Stufft keep things in order. They run sectional rehearsals and make sure everyone has their sheet music.
But they’re also in charge of setting the tone. Lawhorn said the tone they aim for is one that balances personal accountability and a “family environment” where students can talk openly with each other.
“When people have problems and they come to us, we understand it, because we’re also in their shoes,” Lawhorn said. “We offer a different perspective that our directors might not have and can’t see.”
Dillon agreed.
“It’s kind of harder sometimes, talking to adults. So as far as us being the leaders, it just it makes a safer environment for everyone here,” he said.
In the middle of the showcase show, students paused to toss t-shirts into the crowd. After wrapping up the performance, mothers from the music boosters passed out cool water, cookies and root beer floats.
Watson encouraged students and their families to hang around and get to know each other.
“They’re the greatest kids in the world. I think that the band represents the best that Mansfield Senior has to offer,” Watson said of the marching band.
“(Nowak and I) get to make music everyday with these really awesome kids. It doesn’t feel like work.”
(Below are photos from the Mansfield Senior High School Marching Band showcase.)
