The players tried to take the field ...

Props for having both a Don McLean AND Steely Dan reference in a thread about high school football/marching band butthurt.

And the Marching Atoms is a cool name.

 

Annandale has great Korean karaoke joints, some former co-workers told me.

 

Tucked away in Alexandria off Duke, a mile and a half or so west of Old Town.

 

It's probably not like this at all schools, but in my town Big School High's band runs the concession stand at the football games and keeps the profits. I'm guessing at any high school with a similar arrangement, the band does a far sight better than it would washing cars or selling candy.

 

The coach's actions were inexcusable. If your team is down 35-7 at halftime and you entered the game 1-8, many of those people in the stands came to see the band, not you.
According to the column, the band still had 4½ minutes left. If the clock had hit double zeroes and the band was still playing, I can understand the coach being upset, but not to the point of shaking the podium.
That column tried way too hard to cover a lot of ground. If the "culture of football" includes coaches threatening band majors, conductors and directors, it's been hidden pretty well until now.
And as for football being the only reason for a band to come out of the band room, that's a stupid statement — and that's coming from a former high school and college football player who never played in the band.

 

Yeah. They also have to annoy the piss out of me at basketball games in tiny gyms.

 

That wasn't my primary point, Boom. The point was Gator's claim that without the football team, the band wouldn't leave the room. Many bands would exist, with or without football.

If the presentation isn't completely over the top and eating up too much time, I don't see the problem with recognizing the seniors during the halftime show. Now ... if they're exceeding the time allotted, the band is fair game.

 

I believe you, and I've seen some places do this. But here's the problem ... unless the parents are running it, how can the kids be in the concession stand and in the stands at the same time? Sure, you could try to get people to take turns. All well and good. But trying to juggle those chainsaws probably gets messy in a hurry.

 

Agreed.

Lazy reporting, horrible writing and a lack of focus all wrapped up into one unreadable package of crap.

 

Should've specified, it usually is the band parents running the concessions. Obviously, the kids are busy. All the money, or at least a significant portion of it, goes to the band, though. A few years back it ruffled some feathers at one of the high schools. The football parents wanted a piece of the action, so they tried to force the school district to let them split the concessions duties with the band parents. They'd alternate home games.
The idea fell apart when not enough football parents volunteered to work the concession stand.

 

Guess I hit a nerve here. Look, I'm sure the bands have their own nice little band competition, but the point I was making is that football games are premiere events for bands, a place to perform where there are other people in the stands outside of moms, dads, uncles and aunts. It's not much different than cheer competitions. Sure they have their own competitions, but nobody goes to those outside of relatives. At least not where I live.

My other point to this column: coach wasn't being a bully, he was being a dickhead. There's a pretty big difference, and if that bully label keeps being thrown around this easily, it's going to get watered down real fast.

 

NERDS!