Marching in formations up and down the parking lot at the high school, the Permian High School Marching Band has been spending the past couple of weeks preparing for the new season.
For director Jeff Whitaker and his students, there’s much more excitement in the air heading into this marching season than normal.
Last year’s season was altered (like many other bands) due to the pandemic and social distancing measures that were in place.
“This year, it’s more typical considering what we’ve been through together and we noticed that from the first day that we met,” Whitaker said. “That first day of practice is always nervous for us on staff because we didn’t know who would walk in. The kids that came in (on the first day) walked in with great attitudes and a lot of energy. I don’t know if I was just away from it long enough for it to feel refreshing, or the students are just at a higher level but I’ll take it.”
With more gusto, the Panther marching band continues to work on its halftime and pregame show performance.
“The obvious (difference) is that we can actually do stuff, but there’s actually a sense of hope that we can get back to what we love,” Whitaker said. “We can go back to entertaining and doing the things that made the Permian bands great in the past and reviving the tradition.”
COVID still remains a threat with the Delta variant, but Whitaker says the marching band is still being cautious.
“The number one challenge is the obvious elephant in the room in that we’re still dealing with COVID,” Whitaker said. “We want to be as safe as possible so we can proceed with normal operations. We don’t want to get going with all of this momentum and energy just to have it all pulled away from these students. We’re making sure that we’re taking as many precautions as possible while not taking away … their opportunity. Working through those things, I think the biggest thing we’ve learned is don’t give up on the kids. They have to have every chance they can get.”
However, the excitement is still there and the band members have been happy with the progress from the past few weeks.
“Just since day one, we’ve been finishing learning how to march and get all that stuff done,” said senior Connor Haislip, who is also one of the band captains and plays the baritone. “We were really able to start working on our show. We started off a little slow and had to practice backwards marching, but we were able to get a lot done that (first) day of practice.”
Not only are Whitaker and his students looking forward to doing a complete halftime show this year but they’re also excited about being able to compete at contests, including the University Interscholastic League competitions.
Last year would’ve been Permian’s year to advance to area and state.
Typically, 2A, 4A and 6A schools advance past the UIL regional competition on even-numbered years while 1A, 3A and 5A schools go on odd-numbered years.
This year, every classification will be eligible to advance to area and state competitions in UIL due to the pandemic causing some schools to not be able to compete last year.
“It adds to the momentum and while it does not define us, it is nice to have a shot,” Whitaker said. “I’ve never quite understood (why we don’t advance every year) … We don’t think of them as years off. We’ve always filled in the gap years with other competitions. But UIL runs Texas and when they said we have a chance to advance this year, that’s always awesome. It’s nice to have something to focus on. Everyone in Texas knows what that means.”
Permian’s first competition this year will be at the Bands of America West Texas Regional Championship for Oct. 2 at Midland’s Grande Communication Stadium.
The region marching band competition will take place at Ratliff Stadium later that month, which will be followed by area which Whitaker says will be at El Paso.
Haislip is excited for the chance to compete again at UIL competitions this year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity considering that we get to do region this year since we didn’t get to last year,” Haislip said. “We’ve all gotten this great opportunity this year. We’re going to try for state and I know that we can make it because we have a great group.”
One of the challenges this year has been getting the sophomores and freshmen caught up.
“It has been harder because the sophomores didn’t get to experience this level of marching (last year) so the sophomores and freshmen are all learning together,” said junior Kinslea Blau, who plays the French horn and the mellophone. “So far, it’s gone really smoothly.”
This year’s halftime show for Permian will feature a desert theme which will include music from the movie “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”
“This halftime show is probably one of the best concepts we’ve ever had,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker says this halftime show was a project that was actually set up for the 2020 school year.
Much time and effort has been put into the project which has taken about seven to eight months to finalize and make necessary tweaks, as well as teach.
“Due to COVID, we had another year to plan it,” Whitaker said. “We had a blueprint and when we got the green light to go ahead; we grabbed all the work that we had put in and with refreshed energy, we got to work.”
Whitaker is hoping his band can paint a desert scene on the field similar to the Monahans Sandhills.
“We’re thinking that we have some beautiful incredible props that will make the scenery look like driving through a scene in Arizona,” Whitaker said. “We start out with the sand dunes and we play the music from ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’… It’ll give us a chance to have a ton of power and energy and just ‘wow’ everyone. It’ll be like a story. Our first opener is the teaser and there will be three acts in the show. It’s more challenging than anything we’ve attempted.”
Permian’s first home football game of the season will be Aug. 27 at Ratliff Stadium against El Paso Pebble Hills.
Whitaker says there is still plenty of work to do between now and the first marching performance of the season.
“At this point, we’re not sure what the show for that first game will be,” Whitaker said. “There are so many moving parts from marching around the track to the pregame show, but every time you see us this season, there’s going to be something new. There’s going to be a new complexity and new layers. Our competition starts in October. These kids, they’re the first ones on campus. They go to the football games on Friday nights and then they go compete the next morning at competitions. Friday nights are almost like warm-ups for us for competitions.”
Blau is thrilled that the band will perform the finished product for the fans during the season.
“The halftime show is exciting,” Blau said. “We’re all very excited to learn it and we’re eager to show off all our hard work to the fans.”
