#Bandology - Conference USA Tournament

Crazy busy week for the G'Dale Bands.

Music Performance Assessment

Our MPA has been reschedule for tonight (Tuesday). We will perform at 7PM at Mountain Brook High School. There have been a lot of moving parts trying to get this rescheduled not just for us but for the other bands that had their MPA performances delayed due to weather. Whole thank you to the District Band folks for working with us WHILE getting ready to kick off middle school MPA which is starting today also.

Bandology - Conference USA Tournament (Lots of info)

The Gardendale Pep Band has been asked to perform at the Conference USA Tournament this week in Birmingham. This is a great opportunity for our program to get our name out there and a nice break from the seriousness of MPA. We will also get to see how some other pep bands run and work so we have some ideas to "borrow" for next year.

We will be playing in place of the University of Texas El Paso band for both their Men and Women's teams. The Men have been doing well lately after having a pretty rough start. They finished 4th in the conference and will not play Wednesday. The Women lost all their starters from last season so finished 11th out of 14 in the conference.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a required event. Much like it was for the last three games of the GHS Basketball season, this is a completely optional experience. The students have shown interest since the Fall about having a pep band and we are working to make that happen. That being said, if we are going to do this we need be well represented. We are only allowed to have 30 members per game and I would love for any students that want to experience this to be able to. Some of the games are late at night. All game travel will be by school bus.

Some rules to consider as we think ahead...

1) If a student wants to participate in a game, no matter what time the game is, they must be at school that day.

2) If a student performs at a game they MUST be at school the following day ON TIME. No matter if our game ends at 5PM or 11:30PM.

3) Grades. Make sure you are caught up on your work, you have communicated with any teachers that you need to communicate with, etc.

All games are televised so they could last longer than normal (normal is around a hour and 45 minutes). Also, if the game before goes into overtime, the start time could be later. Things out of our control.

If you would like to chaperone these trips, please email me. NOTE: I am not sure if you will be allowed in without buying a ticket. If we run into that I will handle it.

In the spirit of Bracketology (the guessing of which teams will make the NCAA tournament and whatnot), let's look at something we will call Bandology. In this case, when will/could the G'Dale Band be playing throughout the tournament...

Wednesday

Only one game on Wednesday. Playing for the UTEP Women at 9PM (LATE GAME!!!) at Bartow Arena. We will be playing against Old Dominion who has a killer pep band and a specific song (Talkin' out the Side of Your Neck) and way they play it that I want to "borrow" next year.

Call time for this will be 7PM at GHS. Load the bus, head down to Bartow. There will be a little time to eat if need be, but concession prices in Bartow are a little high so might want to eat before.

I expect us to be home by 11:30PM.

Thursday

Our last guaranteed game will be for the UTEP Men during the day. They play their first game at 2:30PM at the BJCC. They play the winner of Rice and Southern Miss. More than likely Rice as they set a record for conference games won and Southern Miss... is garbage (#SMTTB). Rice is not sending their pep band so the UAB Blazer Band is filling in and they play a version of Uptown Funk that is killer.

Students participating will be called from class at Noon. Load the bus, head down to the BJCC, Lunch can either be brought or done at the BJCC. Assuming that game last til 5PM (due to TV) we should be back around 5:45PM.

If the teams win these games they will continue to play the next day. For the Women, they are stuck in the late spot on Thursday. The Men would move to the morning slot for a game on Friday at 11:30AM if they win. More details on the following possible games (and ticket information for games) as the day goes on (might be late).

Thank you for your consideration for your students participation in this event. Many of them will hopefully do pep band in college and this gets them ready for that atmosphere. Also thank you for your flexibility on the MPA reschedule.

Our kids are working hard and representing our band program well. Can't wait to show them off this week.

#HailtheDale
JT