CRANE A familiar face is heading the Crane High School band this year.
Sara Hill was most recently band director in McCamey, but had been in Crane as head middle school band director and Crane assistant high school band director.
With the retirement of Daniel Todd at Crane High, Hill was chosen to take over.
A native of Graham, Hill went to McMurry University for a year and then earned a bachelor’s degree in music education and a bachelor’s in music performance from Texas Tech University. Her primary instrument is clarinet.
“This is my 18th year to teach. I taught for five years in Odessa. I’ve taught nine years in Crane. Then I went to McCamey for three years and this is my first year back …,” Hill said.
She returned to Crane at the beginning of July.
After graduating, she taught elementary music for a year at Austin Montessori in Odessa.
“… Randy Talley, who was the fine arts director there at the time, convinced me to go be a band director. I thought I’d give it a try and now look here I am, teaching band,” Hill said.
She taught band at Hood Junior High, now called Wilson & Young Medal of Honor Middle School. Serving as the assistant band director, Hill taught at Hood with Georgann Weisgerber.
Coming back to Crane has been great so far, Hill said.
“It’s nice coming into a place where I already know the kids. The sophomores, juniors and seniors, I taught them when they were in junior high. I was their middle school band director, so I know them pretty well. All the kids I’m teaching, I taught all their brothers and their sisters, so it’s nice coming into a familiar area and feel like I’m coming home,” Hill said.
“I taught here for nine years. I left and went to McCamey and grew as a teacher, as a band director and had a great experience; had some great students in McCamey. I have brought all that to the table. I’m excited and ready for new adventure and a challenge for sure,” she added.
There are about 138 students in Crane band this year. Hill said she thinks they finished last year with 130.
The band has already had its first football games.
“We were band of the week both weeks. We played McCamey our first game, which was tough playing the the school I just left; it was really hard seeing all my old kids. It was a tough game for me because I love those kids dearly. Those kids are hard workers, and we had built that program up …,” Hill said.
Hill said it was scary, but exciting at the same time taking over the program that Todd had headed for so long.
“We worked together for nine years and we’ve been very close friends. We got along really well and had a great relationship. We’ve still been close while I’ve been gone,” Hill said.
The Hills and the Todds were like family.
“It’s nice having him here in town where I can call if I have a question. I can call him up and he can assure me that I’m doing things right … if I have a question he can help me along the way, so I think it is nice having someone here that’s been here for so long. But at the same time I’m not scared to call him because I worked with him. I’m lucky to have such a great mentor. I owe everything to him. He taught me the ropes. When I got here I’d only been teaching for five years, and I was just an assistant band director. He convinced me somehow to come to Crane. My husband is a coach and so he took a job in McCamey. I was going drive back and forth, but he convinced me to come to Crane, and I haven’t looked back since. It’s been great experience. I’m lucky to have him,” Hill said.
Hill’s husband, Eric, coaches football and powerlifting in Crane. They have three children, Brinlee, Natalie and Braxton.
“It’s kind of fun because this year Brinlee is a sixth-grader, so she’s in band so she’s in my class. So it’s going to be a different experience, for sure. She’s going to be a percussionist,” Hill said.
Band starts in fifth grade in McCamey, but Hill said they just did recorders and music.
Hill said music has always been part of her family.
“My mom’s a really good singer. My dad’s a good singer. My mom and dad were both in band, so I’ve been around music my entire life from when I was little. I took piano lessons growing up. My church, we were heavily involved in handbells, playing handbells. My own children have been around music their whole life, so that they’re pretty musically inclined,” she added.
Hill said she thinks the Crane band is doing really well.
“We have a lot of young students. We have about 50 freshmen, but they’re hard-working kids. We’re playing really good. We have a ways to go with the marching a little bit just because we’re so young, but overall, I think I’m very pleased with our progress so far. I have a long ways to go, but I’m very pleased with what we’re doing so far,” Hill said.
There are three band directors, including Hill, Russell Dean, Crane Middle School band director, and assistant band director Ryan Chambers.
“We pretty much team teach everything all together,” Hill said.
As for goals for this year’s band, she said it is to keep their streak alive and create a band family.
Hill said they have a tradition of sweepstakes every year meaning they get a 1 in marching, concert and sightreading and that equals a sweepstakes. She said she believes this year will be 40 straight years if they make it.
She said her fellow band directors have been great.
“They’re extremely hardworking. They’ve been up here all hours of the day and night helping me get everything situated, so they have been absolutely terrific. Super huge help and definitely made the transition much easier,” Hill said.
Chambers had not worked with Hill before coming to Crane, but all he ever heard from Todd was how great she was and what a fantastic teacher she is.
“We were always in contact it seemed like every couple of months or so. Just questions that I had about the program, and she knows this program very well. She showed how much of a mark she left when I came here and that’s all whose name I heard … It was all good things,” Chambers said.
He added that it has turned out that Hill lives up to her billing.
“It definitely has 100 percent, and I’ve had a lot of fun working with her even if it’s just for a short period of time,” Chambers said.
