Silver Bluff Silver Spirit marching band competition season gets underway

Oct. 5—The Silver Bluff Silver Spirit marching band is getting into the height of marching band competition season, and they have spent the last few months preparing for it.

The band kicked off its competition season Sept. 24 at the Mustang Classic at Midland Valley High School, where they came home with a superior rating and awards in top music, top visual, top effect, first place in Class AA, and are the returning Orange Division Grand Champions.

Competition preparation

But to get to that level, a lot of work has to be done. Lance Stockton, the Silver Bluff marching band director, said band camp for students starts during the third week of July and runs for three weeks. During this time students work on different skills to get ready for the upcoming season.

"It's a combination of we run fundamentals because a lot of the kids, they've never done this before," Stockton said. "So it's new. We start from posture to the first step to fundamental block, as well as music and then we add drill."

While it might sound silly to work on fundamentals, Mallory Berley, the band director at New Ellenton STEAM Magnet Middle School, said they are needed because of what the students are being asked to do.

"All these things we're asking them to do are so unnatural," Berley said. "Like hey, turn your body this way, have your feet that way, and I need you to play your instrument as well. So it's just a lot of breaking down what you're used to doing."

During band camp the students practice from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and then 8 a.m. to noon Fridays, Stockton said.

"We'll put in close to 100 hours of prep time just at camp," Stockton.

Shows

Each year the band has a different theme for the show, with the theme this year being "Dark Horse," Stockton said.

"We're doing, it's a combination of Katy Perry's 'Dark Horse,' which is a pop tune everybody knows, younger folks know, that's arranged with Rolling Stone's 'Paint It Black.' Then the ballad is essentially 'Wild Horses' by the Rolling Stones. The closer is a mixture of 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,' 'Paint it Black' and a little bit of Katy Perry's 'Dark Horse.' So we try to tie in a theme that runs, a musical theme or motif that is tied in throughout all three pieces," Stockton said.

Berley added that there can also be inspiration throughout the previous season and they like to play on the strengths of the students.

"Sometimes it has to do with our kids," Berley said. "We might have a great tenor sax player that we want to focus on. Sometimes the music we pick has a great tenor sax to it. (It) can stem from anything."

Ideas are also bounced off the designer, Randall Standridge, who arranges the music and writes the drills for the band, Stockton said. Because Standridge has been working with the band for a few years he understands what does and doesn't work for the band.

"He's very honest about maybe we look at this, which is similar," Stockton said. "It's definitely a collaborative process."

Competitions

After summer band camp, the marching band practices three days a week, Stockton said. They perform at the Friday night football games before starting Saturday contests at the end of September and through October. The marching band is participating in five competitions this year; the Mustang Classic on Sept. 24 was their first one. Other competitions include one in North Augusta and one at Silver Bluff.

"We're hosting our own here this year, which has not been done here since the '90s from my understanding; it's been a long time," Stockton said. "Then we will go to Lower State, which qualifies us for state. You've got to be in the top eight or you don't make it to state."

Last year, the Silver Spirit band won Lower State and were the second silver medalists at the state championships, Stockton said.

"(That) is really important to us because the COVID year we didn't have anything, but the year before that we didn't even qualify for state. So we went from not making state to being second in the state," Stockton said. "Which is a pretty big deal and that has everything to do with the kids and the work they've put in."

There are 16 bands at the state championship with eight being from the Upper State and eight from the Lower State, Stockton said. This year, Lower State competition will take place on Oct. 22 at White Knoll High School and the State Championship will be at Spring Valley High School on Oct. 29.

"While these other contests are really important, they're really gauges of where you're at as you develop the show because you get feedback from adjudicators from that 6 1/2 -7 minutes, however the length of your show," Stockton said. "Then you take all that feedback and you apply things that are important that need to be fixed to the show that week. It's a 3 1/2 month process to come down to literally one performance.

Marching band members

The marching band is made up of students from all grade levels, but many of them get involved in marching band in middle school.

"Without strong middle schools, they don't just show up here able to do all that they do," Berley said. "We've had three years of prepping them to even be able to do these things... people forget what happens before this happens. This is the reward at the end of it. These kids have worked for two, three years to get there."

Stockton said the marching band at New Ellenton retained every student zoned for Silver Bluff except for one. Most of the students stay in the marching band all four years, but some do join after their freshman year.

"We even have non-freshmen join marching band," Berley said. "So they see what marching band is, and they see our success and they'll join even after freshman year."

"The retention rate here is pretty high," Stockton said. "I think that boils down to the kids here, A. have something to be proud of, the community support here is tremendous, and I believe we've got a staff here which loves kids. Which is important because kids can do a whole lot of other things that are a whole lot easier. They can sit in the air conditioning versus come out and sweat for three weeks and then dedicate their time for three more months. It's somewhere they want to be, which I think is important."

One student who has been marching for a long time is senior and drum major Ireland Mack. As the drum major, she conducts the show and during practices she helps out with drills and whatever else needs to be done.

"I really loved the group and I marched four years previously to it and I just ended up loving the program," Mack said. "But being drum major has definitely given me an outlet to connect even more to everyone around me."

The competitive marching season will be over at the end of October, but the kids will keep performing at the football games until football season is over. Stockton said their last event is the Christmas parades.

Stockton added that the community has played a big part in the success of the marching band.

"The community believes in what we're doing here, which that's really important. We're really appreciative because it certainly takes a village to make a band go in so many ways," Stockton said.