Marching Hurricanes Have No Season—It’s Nonstop

Playing instruments while walking forward, backwards, and sideways, staring straight ahead and keeping cadence, the band members are reminded by their band director, Chris Savage, to “make sure you are breathing!” and “eyes up, eyes up!”

Nine lines of young adults, wearing t-shirts, tank tops, tennis shoes (and some bare feet), shorts, headbands, baseball caps, umbrella hats, bandanas and visors, all marching in unison, practicing daily during football and band competition season.

Meet the 2019-2020 Monticello Marching Hurricanes. Like the football team they play for, the Hurricanes Marching Band practices in the summer. Two weeks of sun, heat and sometimes rain from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Half a day inside and half a day outside, the band members learn individual instrument play first and then graduate to the band that marches.

Once on the field the members learn the movements choreographed by Savage, not unlike football players learning plays in a playbook, requiring rote memorization, teamwork and trust. And, all the while, remembering the music and playing a musical instrument while marching.

The band’s Booster Club includes all the band members’ parents. Booster Club President John Kilgore can’t believe that Monticello is lucky enough to still have Savage, who, this year, started his 18th year as its band director. According to Kilgore, thanks to Savage and the hard work of the band members, The Marching Hurricanes “have never lost a half time.”

Savage can’t believe he’s in his 18th year either. With the exception of his first semester out of college, he has spent his tenure with the Marching Hurricanes. He recalls that he was fresh out of college and so young when he first started teaching band that on casual Fridays he would never wear the allowed blue jeans for fear he’d be mistaken for a student.

Now, some 18 years later, he even has a daughter who plays French Horn starting in the band, and, yes, he does now wear jeans on Fridays.

Savage also can’t believe how fortunate the band is to have such an involved and impactful Booster Club. They build platforms, they provide drinks during day long practices, they provide chaperones, and they raise money. He offered that thousands of dollars go through the boosters, with the money paying for equipment, trips, registration fees and uniforms. The Booster Club works the concession stands and hosts fundraisers throughout the year to “help pay for the band to be able to do its thing.”

Most recently the Booster Club is on a mission to raise close to $40,000 to pay for over 75 new band uniforms. The 11 million dollars of SPLOST monies that is paying for all of the fields and other team uniforms does not have a budget for band uniforms. In true Booster Club fashion, they are working hard to raise the money for new band uniforms. At the time of this article, the Booster Club had raised about $13,500, leaving a deficit still of over $25,000. The uniforms they are currently wearing are 11 years old (the average life span of a band uniform is 10 years) and most show their wear. Savage confessed that he and the band members do have “uniform envy” when they are on the field with or compete against bands with new uniforms.

Savage writes all of the music and the drills for the band. At the end of each football season, he starts writing the music for the next year. The movements, as the performances are called, tell a story. The band tells the story musically, through song choices, selection, moods and style. The Color Guard, one of the band’s sections, tells the story visually through their marching, their uniform choices and their use of flags.

When I asked Savage about the constant reminders to the band of “eyes up,” he explained that if the members are looking down, the music from their instruments hits the ground rather than exploding outwards. And, there’s the problem of not being able to see the Drum Major if the members don’t have their eyes up.

Marching close together, often less than arms length’s apart, the members’ places are different each time, constantly changing positions and responsibilities. Savage said all the practice and hard work is worth it, and when the games finally come and the band is on the field, “the performances make it all worth it.”

Savage explained that “there’s no band season, we just go into other stuff.” In addition to being a band that marches at all football games, the band is also a competition band, with two to three competitions in October. Their first competition this year is October 5th. There is also a concert band, and a percussion ensemble and spring band practice. He has at least one football player in band and several soccer and tennis players.

Band members can start as early as sixth grade, with Mr. Buck, the middle school band director, helping to get the younger band members ready for the high school band.

He can also be found not only with the middle school band but assisting the Marching Hurricane high school band as well. He is thankful that this year that at the beginning of the school year, Jasper County contributed $5,000 to the middle school band program.

Savage shared that not all schools are lucky enough to have bands. “We support the small bands, we used to be one of them, “ he said; “We want to be the best, but we support all the bands. We all support each other.

“People think band is easy. It’s not,” Savage told me. Band members are students to be respected. “Everything is the hardest. They are always multi-tasking and have multiple responsibilities, starting off on the inside, then outside to drills, summer practices, two weeks of summer band camp three days a week of practice and all band members have to take band class,” he stated.

The band does have leadership roles. The drum major is in charge, reporting only to the band director. There are four sections: Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion and Color Guard. Each section has a Quarter Master, workers who are responsible for equipment and uniforms. Their duties go above and beyond playing in the band, including picking up and putting away all the instruments after performances and handing out and collecting uniforms, before and after each event.

Often high performing students, they pay band fees to participate. The Color Guard members even have to pay additional uniform fees as their uniforms change throughout the season.

Savage is thankful for the help of Buck and teacher Angela Savage, the band director’s wife, who coaches the Color Guard, and the Booster Club for their constant support and many contributions.

Head on over to a Friday night football game and enjoy the hard work of the Marching Hurricanes.