Paso Robles High School marching band members pose for a group picture. The band will lead the Colony Days Parade on Saturday, Oct. 17. The parade begins at 10 a.m. Contributed photo.

The Atascadero High School Athletic Foundation will host Atascadero’s first-ever marching band field show competition on Saturday, Oct. 17 as part of the Colony Days celebration. The show, which was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., will start 2 p.m. at AHS’ Memorial Stadium.

The day for the bands, however, begins much earlier. All of the competing bands, plus a few others, will march in the Colony Days parade, starting at 10 a.m. AHS’ marching band will lead off the parade. The other bands in the parade are Atascadero Junior High School, Templeton High School, Paso Robles High School, a joint Lewis and Flamson middle schools band, Righetti High School, San Luis Obispo High School and Inglewood High School. All of the bands, except for Inglewood, AJHS and the joint Paso Robles middle achools band, will compete in the drumline and field show competitions.

AHS band director Nate Conrad described the difference between a corps band and a show band as the techniques used.

“Basically, the corps band takes the marching skills and the musician skills to the extreme,” Conrad said. “[A show band’s objective is] creating a reaction of excitement and joy from an audience of various musical backgrounds.”

Conrad described AHS’ style as more corps, with some show influences.

“We’re kind of moving to the show-style stuff,” Conrad said.

According to Donn Clickard and Bob Sarber, both of the Athletic Foundation, seeing Inglewood’s marching band perform is what got the idea of a marching band competition in Atascadero going in the first place.

“It’s an idea that’s been floating in my head,” Clickard said.

Both Clickard and Sarber described their first encounter with IHS’ marching band happening in 2001 when IHS’ band bus broke down in Santa Maria. Clickard said AHS sent a bus to pick up the students, as is standard practice when that happens. Because the students were stranded at the high school until a replacement bus could be sent from Inglewood, then-AHS band director Brian Wallace suggested IHS do an after-game concert.

“Even though we lost — and we should have won — a lot of people stuck around and were blown away by the band,” Sarber said. “From that point on, Donn and I and the Athletic Foundation thought it would be cool to do a band competition.”

Clickard said with that thought in mind coupled with Colony Days’ theme “Strike Up the Band” this year, they thought it would be the perfect time to get the competition going.

When it was decided to host the marching band competition, Sarber said their first call was to Inglewood High School. Because Inglewood is a show band and the other bands competing are corps bands, Inglewood will not compete, but will be an exhibition band.

“Even us non-band members loved what we heard,” Sarber said. “But we had no idea how good they are.”

“They are so much fun to watch,” Clickard added.

Inglewood High School won the last two national VH1 Battle of the Bands, Sarber said.

Except for IHS and Righetti, all the competing bands are from within the county. Clickard said he credits the current economic climate as the reason for why bands outside the county are not participating this year, but expects the event to grow over the years.

“It’s really expensive for them to come,” Clickard said.

The drumline competition is scheduled to happen at approximately 11:30 a.m. Clickard said that as each band ends the parade, its drum line will break off and perform on Palma Avenue in front of the City Administration Building. Since each drumline performs as its band ends the parade, there may be a lag of a few minutes between each drumline performance.

Clickard said that there are three parts to the Marching Band Competition; the first is the parade, then the drumline competition and finally the field show. AJHS and Paso Robles middle school bands, composed of students from both Lewis Middle and Flamson middle schools, will only perform in the parade.

While winners will be announced for each competition, a sweepstakes award will be given out to the combined winner of all three competitions.

The field show will begin at 2 p.m. and each band will give an approximately 10-minute performance. The award ceremony is loosely scheduled for 4 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.

The cost to attend the field show is $5 for adults and $2 for children 12 and under and those with a school ID.

Atascadero Rotary Club and Atascadero Main Street are sponsors of the event and Atascadero Elks Club purchased the awards.

In addition to the organizational sponsors several local individuals, including Janice and Roger Grant Sr. and Ray Buban, contributed to the field show program. The contributions will help fund the show this year and future years.

For those who would like to contribute or volunteer at the event, call Clickard at 712-6356 or Greyhound Athletic Foundation, P.O. Box 3120, Atascadero, CA 93423.





For the complete article see the 10-13-2009 issue.

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