Seniors Zoe Dal Cerro and Matthew Jacobs take to the podium as the new student directors for this year’s band. 

At the end of each school year, any interested going to be senior band students have the opportunity to compete for a spot as a student director. The chosen students take on many responsibilities including, directing the band during class and during parades, helping with choreography, selecting music for the band to play, and looking for ways to improve the band. The band was faced with these challenges even before the start of the school year. 

“A lot of people seemed to be unmotivated towards coming to practice during the summer. We had a really low turn out for summer band, and when the school year came around, people didn’t really seem enthused to be there,” said senior student director Zoe Dal Cerro. 

The student directors noticed the low turnout and decided to incorporate an upbeat song for the parade season to try to encourage band members.

“When we started working on the song “Funky Town” people actually started getting into it and realizing how good we could make it,” said Dal Cerro. 

Every year the marching tigers have the opportunity to compete against other bands in the local Cranfest parade held in Warrens, WI. The band has done well in the past but this year they took home the first-place trophy in their division.

“I knew we had it in us. All my hard work had paid off and we were successful,” said student director Matthew Jacobs 

The band also won the trophy for the best overall band at the fireman’s competition. 

“It felt awesome, I was genuinely surprised that we won. We’ve never won at Cranfest before in this division. I could tell that a lot of the students in the band were so proud that we won,” said Dal Cerro. 

Another goal of the student directors is to see their passion and love for music manifested within the band. To the directors, it is more than a class, it’s a family. 

“I enjoy seeing the people around me have the same passion for music, and I really appreciate everyone’s energy towards creating a piece of music together. The students are starting to dedicate more of their time and effort towards the band,” said Dal Cerro. 

However, there are challenges to being a student director. A big role the directors play is recognizing potential issues with the band and then finding a solution. This year the band was faced with a new challenge. 

“This year we are a very young band. We have a lot of underclassmen, which is good because we have a lot of potential and a lot of energy but the challenge comes in finding a way to harness that energy and get everyone together,” said Jacobs. 

In an effort to improve the band and overcome these challenges, the directors have already implemented some positive changes into the band and the way it is run. 

“One big change we made is introducing the section trophy. Every week there is a trophy that is awarded to the best section, the hardest working section, the most energetic section. This really helps in getting everyone hyped up and gives them something to look forward to,” said Jacobs. 

Dal Cerro has future plans to bring out older songs that have not been played in years as something new for the band to try. 

“Band is more than a class, it’s a group effort. We’re really a family, we work hard together and we have a lot of fun,” said Jacobs.