Tubas, trumpets, and trombones galore. Everywhere you turn there’s another instrument in your face, but who are the faces behind them? From the outside, band seems like a tight nit group, but when looking deeper you can see it’s more of a family. With every family comes those outliers that aren’t as well liked as the rest. Band is no different. There are kids in band, and then there are band kids. What’s the difference?
“Everybody in band is in the class, obviously, but the difference would have to be in the involvement the students have, because the people who are considered “band kids” are the ones that are involved in the program and care about the program whereas the kids that do band just show up and play and leave,” senior section leader Josie Weber said.
Band director Joseph Thering has noticed a difference in the atmosphere as well.
“There’s some people who really take on the full personality, which is creative, and smart, and unafraid. And there are some people who are here who haven’t become a full member of the community. I usually help people become part of the community by taking them to meet other band kids at other schools, like at honor bands and parades, it usually helps out. Some people I think look at the band kids as tryhards which is totally true and I’m proud of that fact, that sometimes makes them less popular, even though it’s what going to give them money in the end,” Thering said.
Band is everything to some students, it’s why they’re in school, it’s why they try in classes, it gives them a purpose and a family.
“Being in band, when I go into the band room I feel home. There’s a bunch of people that I know fairly well and I’m comfortable around that are just out there, besides that I feel comfortable in the band room, and that’s what band is: being comfortable,” senior drum major Andrew Yenzer said.
A family is diverse and as different as it can be, a band is just the same
“Band is an eclectic crowd with mixed achievement levels through challenges and through fun things that we get to do during the summer and stuff, grow to become a family,” director Thering said.
Fun is for sure a common thing in and out of the band room, from a trip to Texas to the senior prank, there are certainly stories that deserve to be shared.

“Our section went and got burgers but we couldn’t decide where to go, so Colton got B-Bops but then we went to McDonalds. He brought his B-Bops into the McDonalds and then refilled his B-Bops drink while there,” senior Ian Delk said.

“On our most recent band trip to San Antonio, Texas we stayed at a hotel with a pool in it, but it was an outside pool. We went to the hotel and we couldn’t swim the first night but the next night it was cold, it was like 50 degre

Gallery • 5 Photos

es outside at most and we all decide to jump into the freezing pool. Ciara, Paige, and Kayla all jump into the pool with all of their clothes on,” senior Josie Weber said.

“The senior prank was spectacular, at one point I was probably 2-300 cups into the 700 cups of water, cleaning up the room, and thought “ya know, this carpeting is polyester, it not gonna mold. What’s underneath it is concrete, what if I just pour all the water on the floor and hope for it to dry” I poured out the water before I realized it wasn’t going to dry in a couple days, so I went back to unloading into a bucket and taking it outside, pouring it all little by little into the driveway. It took me three hours, it was one of the most sophisticated, if not the most sophisticated senior pranks I’ve ever seen. 700 cups full of water,” Thering said.