The AHS Pride of The Indians marching and concert Band contains 70 students. With that being said, Mr Bates, band director, is not the sole leader. Student leaders are essential to the success of this year’s show, Excalibur, featuring the following: Robin Hood Prince of Thieves overture, Touch the Sky from Brave Heart, How to Train Your Dragon Berk Theme, and Holding out for a Hero. Currently, their most recent competition was on September 30th at Chestatee High School for the Lake Lanier Tournament of Bands.
Ryan Strickland, senior Drum major conducts the band. “ I’ll help lead practices, lead rehearsals, and just kind of make sure everything is in check and everything’s going the way it should be,” said Strickland. After what he believes is the Band making great strides of progress. “I’m just hoping that we can kind of continue to pursue that and just have high standards for ourselves throughout the year,” Strickland said.
Brighton Yeager, senior, is the Percussion Section Leader. Yeager said, “I help everyone in the section get better at their music and sometimes keep them in check when they get a little bit too loud.” Yeager’s goals are more oriented to competitions where he hopes to achieve all Superior scores. “It is a goal that I always strive to get to because it shows that we’ve put in however many countless hours of hard work and we are proud of what we’ve done,” said Yeager. Additionally, Yeager believes that he has work to do for the remainder of his senior year at Armuchee High School. “I would like to have gotten quite a bit better at the non-auxiliary parts of percussion. Like marimba and xylophone,” said Yeager
Olivia Taft, Junior, is the Assistant Drum Major. Taft’s responsibilities include managing conflicts between band members or helping Strickland lead. Taft said, “ I want to make us as a group stronger because, without a solid leadership, you can’t have a solid band.”
Isaac Tucker, Junior brass captain, helps plan for his sectional and more. “So basically, I’ve got to run sectionals for the low brass, specifically trombones. A lot of it’s like just managing and keeping track of people, places, and things. I’m also in the trailer loading crew. I help get everything from point A to point B when they need to go places,” said Tucker.
Logan Huntin, Senior, is a recent Homecoming King & Low Wind Captain. Huntin has great goals for this season and is hoping not just to improve the music of the band but the bond they have between themselves, as well. Hunton said, “ I want to emphasize rather than music, the bond that we have together.” For preparation of the band, there is of course the mundane moving of instruments but personal preparation is more mental gymnastics.”I guess the most preparation we do is mental, getting in the right headspace for practices. You have to be ready to do a lot of stuff really fast over and over and over again. You can’t get frustrated by that. We’ve got to be there for each other to keep that frustration down.” said Hunton.
