A Great Turnout at the Board Meeting!

Thanks to all the parents, students, and family members who attended the Roslyn Board of Education meeting for our presentation last night. It was absolutely incredible seeing all the support! Thanks to Susan Passaro and Claudia Wolfson, our Band Fans Presidents for getting us on the Board Agenda. It was their idea to do this presentation and it certainly was a great way to show our thanks to the administration and Board of Ed for their continued support of the Marching Band!

Board Of Education Meeting Tonight!

Please show your continued support for the Roslyn Marching Bulldogs by wearing Bulldog blue to the Board of Education meeting tonight at the Roslyn Middle School at 8:30pm.

We are on the agenda to show a short 2 minute clip that will give a snapshot into what the Marching Band program is all about. We are also presenting the 2009 season DVD to each Board member as well as to Administration and students will be presenting the 4th Place New York State Plaque.

We want to thank the School Board and Administration for their continued support. Showing up proudly wearing our Marching Band apparel or Bulldog Blue is a reminder to the School Board and Administration that we support their efforts on behalf of our children. When we show our support for this program we are sending a powerful message to the entire community.

Thank you for your support. Hope to see you at the Middle School tonight!

Bake Sales!

Run or help with a Bake Sale and get service points!

Check on Roslynband.com and go to the Bake Sale Page!

A Great Marching Band Story!

We are all guilty of it. Being in our bubble. Trying to tweak the itinerary, to make the trip perfect is an obsession with me. I get upset over things which are just not that important sometimes and excited over little things as well. With next year’s show, the same thing. Going back to my roots, I am trying to think “out of the box” with the design of the show, finding something which is fun, touching, emotionally captivating and educational. I think we have a winner, and I will be posting it up here on the blog in the next few days! Keep checking back.

But now back to the real reason I am writing tonight’s blog. Today my wife Jen came across this story, she sent it to me in an e-mail and kept on bugging me to watch it. Waking up with the baby, I checked it out just a few minutes ago....... and........it is an incredible life story.

Once in a while we come across a story which changes us, a story which makes us a better person after we see it. I’ve put the link on the sidebar of this website for this incredible youtube story. Watch it. It’s about a marching band too!

Roslyn Receives 4th Place in New York!

All I can say is WOW!!! The band definitely did their best performance of the year. The music was incredible, drill fantastic, and the guard was amazing! We totally peaked! Everyone in the band, the staff, and parents are thrilled with the incredible year we had. Bravo!

Outside the dome many parents have asked me why we were 4th place, that they thought we should have placed higher with the scoring. Now that our website is password protected I can be a bit more forthcoming in addressing this now. So here it is, I am going to go for it. Many parents said we should have probably scored in 2nd or 3rd place. Everyone has their own opinion and even when we look at our show a few months from now, many of us will still be scratching our heads. What is going on here?

Obviously we should have scored higher. The big spread over us is, to say the least, way out of line. The judges had us in a row, coming in 4th or 5th across the board. Traditional or let’s say “classic” judging is definitely taking place. I must be honest with you, none of us are surprised. The ironic thing, all the judges have the same exact opinion, which really shouldn’t happen if you think about it. Judges should have different opinions and different views. And bands should be strong in some areas and weaker in others. This did not happen. We were lined up on the sheets like ducks in a row. Well we know this is subjective, and yes, perhaps I should have waited to find a more cryptic way of writing it, but I do get upset when our kids get slighted. I felt today, especially with that spread, that we were slighted. We all know what we deserve, hey, we all knew we were having issues at the Bethel show, and we all know we are amazing now. Remember, each band we are competing against has been in existence for many years. They have all been competing for 30 plus years, even if they only say a few years in this conference. We are in our 7th year and what we have done the past 7 years is nothing short of incredible. We are a force to be reckoned with! Today, we showed that.

I am so proud of all the kids. We got the highest score we ever received, did a fantastic job, and are now at the mall, being with each other. We had an amazing year!

Thanks to everyone and check us out on youtube!

Syracuse Trip Update - Dome Today, We Are Ready!

So here are some thoughts going into today’s State Championship Competition. We are totally ready, everything has worked to our favor. The weather has been super cooperative. We got two full run throughs in on each of the past two weekends while other bands barely got outside. Yesterday, the other bands had to do an indoor show and we luckily had a weather break and got a full rehearsal and run throughs outside at a great facility. We practice on an artificial turf field so we are used to that texture to march on. We are peaking, the most important part of trying to aim the band to a perfect perfomance at the dome.

We have been dealing with timing problems all year, the actual keeping the band together, due to the complexities of the drill, drum placement, field spreads, etc. and have solved all of those problems. The dome ceiling reaks havoc on every band, the echo coming off the roof is almost as loud as the actual band and can cause any band’s dome perfomance to fall apart. We have it down, we are used to looking at the drum majors, we have been practicing it all season so the dome should have minimum impact on our performance. Bands that have never had a timing issue frequently have a hard time adjusting. We have been adjusting all year. So we are as ready as we can be. We are marching great, looking great and sounding great. The entire band is in a prime position to be incredible at the dome. Now we have to perform.

Now here is the most important paragraph. Be ready for anything. This medium is subjective and judges simply “liking” or “not liking” the show impacts the scores incredibly. There is also a huge let’s say................ “tradition” thing going here. Bands have to pay their dues to move through the ranks and getting high scores takes time (read between the lines). But, we cannot criticize the judging environment. Some day they will crown us champions and we will be the beneficiaries of the “tradition” thing. Also, our neighbor, Mineola, is having an incredible year. Their guard is probably the best guard in the state and that alone could push them to 1st in our class. Brentwood and Sachem are also seeded to possibly get 1st place in their classes. They are all having great years. We should be ready and supportive of our neighbors. Whenever a Long Island band does well at the dome it helps us all.

So after we perform, and this goes with ANY judges performance, prepare yourself for any place. We could get 5th place, we could get 1st. There is simply no way of knowing what the judges will do. We have a fresh read, most of the judges haven’t seen us yet, which makes it VERY unpredictable. No matter what, we will go home at least 5th in the state. We will beat a ton of bands in the lower two classes, LS3 and SS3.

I’ve said this a million times and I will say it again. We cannot let 10 judges define what we are and how we feel about ourselves. We have accomplished great, amazing things this year. Look and listen to us, we are great! No matter how this day turns out we are “Champions.” No band in New York has made the strides that our band has in the past 7 years. Have fun! Be proud!

Syracuse Trip Update - Saturday Night

Tonight’s update, Saturday, October 31st, 2009. We had a great day. First we woke up at 8:30, had a great breakfast and talk, and then went to the Phoenix Show. We got a full warm up in before it started raining, then performed an incredible show in the gym. We then went to eat at the Phoenix cafeteria and got those famous salt potatoes! Then on to Central Square Stadium at 3:45. We let the kids do homework or nap on the bus from 4:15, our arrival time, to 5:10. Then, with the rain totally stopped, we got a great rehearsal in. We worked on sections of the show for about an hour and then did two full run throughs. The band is totally peaking and we are ready for tomorrow. Gotta go, I have to put my costume on and make my entrance with some of the senior boys! Go Yankees! And thanks to the parents who set up the banquet room for us!

Syracuse Trip Early Saturday Morning Update

Last night we had a great Buffet, the dinner included just about everything you could imagine. Then we went to the pool and hung out in the lounge areas until bed time. Many students were studying and doing homework while about 20 were in the workout room at any given time throughout the evening. We will be having a late wake up, at 8:30am, eating at 9:30 and on to Phoenix today, looks like rain.

It is supposed to stop raining at the time we are to go to Central Square to rehearse. We will probably go there, wear the raincoats over our coats and do a drill only rehearsal with no pit and no instruments, and then when it clears up, perform the show and get outside for a while. This will give us an edge with no other bands getting out the past few weeks due to rain.

We have these incredible box moves that we want to perfect before tomorrow. We are currently seeded 5th place out of 5 in our class, but hey, with judging, you never know what will happen. The way the band looked and sounded this past week, anything is possible.

Syracuse Trip Update - Friday at 4:45

Here is the beginning of the Syracuse Trip update. We left the school about 15 minutes late. One of our busses had a flat tire so we had to send for another bus. Once on the road it was clear sailing until we hit about a mile south of Yankee Stadium. We were on Route 87. After a 15 minute slowdown, the roads opened right up and we have been without traffic. We are now about 50 miles south of Binghampton. We should get to our hotel around 7pm.

The Dome - The Big Burrito!

Wow, waking up this morning, I realize that we are once again having a rain show, probably indoors at Mineola High School tonight. What does this mean? Well, the last time we performed for judges on the field was October 4th, at the Huntington show. So we are going into the dome a new band, not being judged for 3 weeks, an eternity in a competitive marching band season. In addition, the judges who saw us at that show could very well be judging us at the dome, which is good, and bad. The bad...........they burried us. The good...............they said that if we got this show down, we could take it all. At Arlington the next week, the judges popped Mineola to an 82, pretty much guaranteeing them a win at the dome, which is great for them, our neighbors. I personally think that the slate at the Arlington show will be judging the “large school slate” since most of the bands at that show were large schools. All except Mohonassen and Mineola. We will know who the judges are going to be on Monday morning and I will post it on this blog.

Knowing Mineola was going to have a phenomenal year, we heard it from camp our goal was to stay right under them this year and possibly get 2nd at the dome. That didn’t quite work out, they beat us by alot. However, with the weather, Mother Nature has given us another lease on life! The early October scores really mean nothing now. There will be 12 judges deciding our fate and we have quite a bit of control over that.

What do we need to do? Watch the youtube video of the Pep Rally. That pretty much tells it all. I don’t know why there are still wrong notes, people sticking out musically, and the opener sounds like only 20 people are playing. We have to get over the drill anxiety and play out while we march. Yes, the drill is hard, but we are nailing it. Let’s play musically and get those parts down cold this week! It is better but not championship caliber.

What is the worst that can happen? We can go in with what we got and get 5th place in our class. We will still beat half the bands at the dome in classes LS3 and SS3, and come home winners. Right now, with the wrong notes, unmusicality, people sticking out and people not playing, that’s what we would get.

What is the best that can happen? We put it all together, get confident, play musically, all of us get our music down, and nail this thing, coming in 1st place. An upset for the ages, one which will be talked about forever. It is totally possible and in our court. We have to make a decision and do it! These last rehearsals have to be incredible. We still have this morning’s music rehearsal, this morning’s sectionals, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s rehearsals, a big rehearsal on Halloween at Central Square Stadium, and the big warm up rehearsal at skytop before the dome. That is alot of rehearsing and cleaning. Big music rehearsals and some huge visual rehearsals to tighten up those box moves.

Major upset, an upset of huge proportions. One for the ages. Let’s do it!