practice makes perfect

On October 30, I got to go to band practice from the beginning and watched the warm-up marching drills.  Usually I get there when they are already practicing their field show.

Percussion and color guard usually do their own drills.  This is the rest of the band, brass and woodwinds.  They started off in a circle then marched out to a bigger circle, then marched around clockwise then back in.

After they were done, I noticed a cool pattern in the field, showing where they marched.

Right after school ended in May, the school began three BIG renovation projects:  replace the grass at Kunuiakea Stadium with synthetic turf and demolish/rebuild the athletic complex, demolish and rebuild the middle school, AND tear into the mountain next to the chapel parking lot to build a cultural center.

The design in the turf was caused by little black pellets which is what the turf is made up of (usually from ground up tires).  Those little pellets got into Ryan's shoes and he tracked them into the car too. (Never heard of these before but when I googled "stadium turf pellets" a whole bunch of info came up!)

I think the band was the first to be on the new synthetic turf field when it reopened late October, just in time for our Tournament of Bands on November 6.  It's made a beautiful stadium even nicer.

And a few nights later, we found out that it has great drainage!  It poured rain every day/night until TOB, so we were so worried.  Ryan said there were no puddles at all, except maybe in the corners at the end of the fields; all the rest of the water drained out.  And most important, there was NO MUD.

This photo was taken with my Blackberry the night before TOB, on November 5.  I could see the rain blowing past the stadium lights from Kamehameha Shopping Center!  The kids were soaked through but kept marching!  An earlier practice that week had been cancelled but this one had to go on because the band had to be its best at their own tournament.  Cliched, but the show must go on.