Samohi Marching Band Takes Prize

Wins Grand Sweepstakes

                                             photos courtesy Doug Campbell

James Allardice
Mirror staff writer

   The Santa Monica High School football team may be getting all the accolades of late, and deservedly so after their 11-1 season and CIF championship, but there is another extracurricular program at Samohi that has also been collecting trophies.
   The Santa Monica High School Band was with the Viking football team at every game on its way to a CIF championship, as well as competing in band tournaments throughout Southern California — most often on Saturdays following a Friday night football game and most recently at Disneyland.
   “Our school, and specifically, our football and athletic program, is very fortunate to have such a large and successful band to support the team at home games,” Dr. Carl Hammer, the band’s assistant director said. “We feel that it is important to continue the tradition of supporting our football team, and supporting school unity and spirit and the community of Santa Monica.”
   For the average Viking fan, the band season begins and ends with the football season. However, for the students involved in the program, the training and commitment begins long before the first home football game.
   “The marching season runs specifically from the end of August through the end of November,” Hammer said. “During the summer, many students practice once a week to get a head start on the music and marching for the new season. During the last two weeks of August, the entire marching band assembles for an intense two weeks of training.
When the academic year begins, the marching band meets every day in a regular class period.
   In addition to regular marching band classes and performances at football games, the band participates in four or five tournaments each year. This year, the band has been nearly as successful as its football cohorts, claiming the Grand Sweepstakes at the Sierra Vista Field Tournament and winning several more music sweepstakes trophies at other tournaments. In addition, the color guard, which by all accounts has made great strides in recent years, took home a first place trophy in their category.
   According to Gaye Saxon, Co-President of the Santa Monica Band Parents Association, after the band captured the Sweepstakes in its first tournament of the year, the band rushed the field and mobbed the drum major and color guard captan as they carried five trophies off the field.
“We have had some great performances this year,” Hammer said. Linda Pence, Co-President of the Santa Monica Band Parents Association said, “They’ve really been scooping up awards and trophies at the sweepstakes this year.”
   Pence and Saxon are focusing this year on fundraising for the band’s trip to Washington D.C. for a Fourth of July celebration in 2002. “In general, they need a lot of volunteers,” Pence said. “As parents we just try to provide some of the logistical support for the band.”
   Primarily through fundraising, the band was recently able to purchase a semi-sized trailer to transport its equipment to tournaments. “That really instilled a strong sense of pride in the students,” Pence said. “It seems like an odd thing for an outsider, but you go to these tournaments and some of the teams have enormous resources… having a trailer like we now do really allows the program to compete at the highest level.”
   Over the weekend the band performed at Disneyland, signaling the end of the marching season. “We usually end the season with a performance at Disneyland,” Hammer said. “It’s a great reward for working all season, and fun to play for the Disneyland audiences. We have to audition every year to be accepted into the Disneyland performance program. We are pleased to be able to represent Santa Monica again this year at Disneyland.”
   With marching season over, the band’s 140 members’ focus turns to music education, as they enroll in music ensembles. Due to the physical demands of marching, students receive physical education credit for fall participation.
   Hammer said, “We have had a good year. We have many things we need to improve, and are working each year to become better. We are one of the oldest high school marching bands in the western United States, and always strive to achieve the high standards that have been set by the great Samohi bands of the past.”