Deptford High's band marching toward another title

Late one chilly night last November, Deptford High's band returned from Baltimore's Ravens stadium with its first national championship. Months of drills, training camps and pep talks had finally paid off for dozens of young competitors.

But when one of the victors bragged to a Deptford cheerleader, she didn't believe him.

"You can't win a national championship," the cheerleader said. "You're a marching band."

Even fresh off a national title, it's not always easy being in a band.

Now, aspiring to another win, the band concluded its mandatory August camp yesterday in Worcester, Pa., - 11 hours of daily practice.

At the end of Monday's four-hour morning session, the horn line, percussion and color guard labored to keep pep in their step and finish the show's second movement by lunchtime. They marched and pivoted in shorts and sneakers, to be replaced by new black-and-gold uniforms before the first competition in two weeks.

All was going well until the drums in the pit got ahead of the horn line, causing assistant director Calvin Spencer, a former Marine, to bellow "Stop!" from the scaffolding. The 68-member band gave the movement another try before they were dismissed for lunch, falling out for the dining hall as rain began to spot the field.

They have practiced throughout the summer and face a fall schedule of three-hour practices twice a week, with football half-times and competitions each weekend. The band spends as many as 17 hours together some Saturdays, though football crowds often regard its half-time show as the cue to hit the snack stands.

Worst of all, band members said at practices throughout the month, many students just don't understand how hard they work and how much they love participating.

"Most people think marching band is boring," said Alyssa Price, a ninth-grade clarinet player.

"Or dorky," said Lauren Perry, a seventh grader in the color guard.

After a summer of rehearsals, the girls contend that band is neither boring nor dorky, but that it's awesome. Both Perry and Price joined the Spartan Marching Band last spring after directors visited Monongahela Middle School with promises of fun and tales of the previous season.

"I can't even believe what a great feeling that must be to walk away with that trophy," said Perry, all smiles as her ponytail bobbed.

Band members and directors alike hope the trophy will stir enthusiasm for the coming season. They got a taste of popular support during last year's Thanksgiving game, when football fans stuck around to watch the band's winning show.

"No one left the stadium," director Mike Armstrong said. "They announced us as national champions, and everybody stayed. It was one of those years you don't want to forget."

Marching band competitions are organized through circuits. Deptford won its championship through the United States Scholastic Band Association, which draws competitors mainly from the East Coast but also from Texas and California. Last year was the second national championship awarded through USSBA.

The Deptford band had its glory days in the 1960s and '70s before 27-year-old Armstrong was born. It opened the 1964 New York World's Fair and marched in major parades for at least a decade with as many as 250 members.

Then came the slump. After-school activities lured members away, especially after Title IX opened up more sports to girls. The color guard, all-female until a boy joined this year, dwindled from 50 members in the 1970s to eight last year.

Bonded by long rehearsals and rhetoric stressing the group's reliance on each member, band members tend to be tight-knit. The intimacy is heightened by the group's small size: Last year, Deptford's band had 43 members.

But larger memberships allow bands to take on more complex and challenging formations. This year, Armstrong and Spencer, who is also the middle school band director, pushed hard to recruit eighth graders and, for the first time, seventh graders, which tournament rules allow. The marching band grew to 68 members, half of them rookies.

The band's most visible performances - football game halftime shows - are really just warm-ups for competitions later each weekend, Armstrong said. Days can run from the 8 a.m. pregame warm-up until 1 a.m. post-competition.

The urge to win runs deep, but directors, members and parents emphasize life lessons, work ethic and camaraderie.

Ann Blubaugh, the mother of this year's drum major, Shawn, said the band instilled confidence and discipline.

"Some of them seem so shy, so backwards, but by the time they complete their years in marching band, you just see them blossom," she said.

Like many parents, Blubaugh works at fund-raising events, attends each competition, and helps unload uniforms and instruments afterward.

She's so supportive of the experience that she lets Shawn commute to band practice all summer from the motel the family manages in Wildwood.

As he enters his fifth year with the band, Shawn Blubaugh shares many of the band members' perspective on competition: "If you come in last and know you did your best, that's all you can ask," he said.

But they'd rather win?

"Oh, yeah, you want to have the attitude you're going to smack everyone around and steal their trophies," he said.

The band's first performance will take place during the Sept. 12 football game in Woodstown, followed by a competition in West Deptford the next night.

Deptford hopes to repeat as champs, Armstrong said.

"I would say we have a shot," he said. "This is a show that if you put it in the right hands can win a championship. It's all about the execution."