Hi Folks!
Before we any further, PLEASE ALSO READ THE POST BELOW THIS ONE FOR A GENERAL BAND UPDATE.
If you want the TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read) version of my post here it goes:
TLDR: Yes I heard there's football. 😜 Of course we are going to try and do marching band in some fashion along with it, we are like peanut butter and chocolate (For the record, we are the chocolate). We are going to wait and see what they come up with and proceed accordingly. Be ready for the strong possibility of rehearsals resuming soon. Now please stop blowing up my phone and emailing me because I don't know anything more just yet 😏 And with that, let's go and enjoy our fine Labor Day Weekend.
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, a bit of discussion:
-I know that they said there's Football. Don't get too hype just yet. You'll notice they have promised football then cancelled it, now are promising it again. It is completely possible they are going to flip flop again in a few days.
-Even if they DO have football, there is a lot of hand wringing and teeth gnashing about how many people can actually be on site. We may be limited as to how many people can be in the audience. There may not be an audience at all. There may not be band or cheerleaders allowed, or a limited amount of band/cheer/pom.
-None of this is going to be clear for a few days. I know that everyone is excited (I am too. Quite frankly marching band is one of the activities that I feel I can safely pull off) but the devil is always in the details. I don't think MHSAA has really thought this through very well, and whatever they do come up with, it isn't going to be what you'd expect. There is a lesson from Ben Franklin that I live my life by. It's about paying too much for your whistle.
-My plan for us is to wait until the dust settles and then make a plan that let's us be as "marching bandy" as possible within the realm of sanity. Again, I love marching band, it is in our best interest to do marching band if we can. What we are not going to do is force something stressful and unduly complicated on the kids (or more realistically, let them force it on themselves) just so we can say we had a season. I'm sure there is a middle ground in there somewhere. If/when we start rehearsing again after school, I THINK it will not be until the week of September 14th, but that could totally change.
-In order for us to safely continue marching activities and for us to be eventually ready to rehearse inside, we are purchasing band-specific PPE and will be needing volunteers for the sewing corps to help make bando masks. More information will be forthcoming. If you are good at sewing, please email me at smigellj@howellschools.com or mrs. Allegoet at allegoel@howellschools.com so I can have this group ready when we get the right pattern.
Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print. Our kids are fantastic. Howell is a good community. Marching band is the greatest activity of them all. How can we fail?... Wait, don't answer that 😁
-Smigell
