Marching to a new beat

As the Jay County indoor percussion unit goes into its state qualifying contest Saturday, the team of 22 high school and middle school students will look to drum its way into the finals.
But whether first or last, the competition circuit this year will be viewed as a success.
“My expectation is to have the run of the year,” said Mitch Snyder, the Marching Patriots’ percussion director who is leading the group. “No pressure, no pressure at all. This is for fun.”
“Last year, we missed state qualifying by one spot,” said Jay County High School assistant band director Eric Bowman. “This year as we’ve developed as a group … two weeks ago we got promoted out of the beginner class into the next competitor class. We’re now in the thick of things with great groups and schools our size.”
Whether the team qualifies for the finals or not, the second-year program is helping the percussionists improve for the summer marching band circuit.
“It was developed … to kind of keep the percussion students playing year-round,” Bowman said. “This keeps them prepared for the summer and that’s kind of our approach to it. We haven’t been super serious about it in terms of being competitive but just trying to keep the kids playing year round and marching so we’re a little better in the summer.”
Senior Taylor Hatzell said that the indoor circuit should help the percussion players stay sharp.
“If they stay together and stay on the instruments and put forth the effort they should be good,” said Hatzell.
Aside from the high school percussion players, the group also includes band members who made a temporary transition from other instruments and several middle-schoolers.
“People took on more challenges, from going to bass drum to snare to tenor to mallets,” said senior percussionist Dylan Franks of the 22 members involved.
“A phenomenal amount of talent and dedication,” said Snyder.
“It creates a link,” Bowman said of the middle school participants. “It gets the kids hooked into the program and lets them know what the high school thing is like before they actually get into the summer.”
They’ve combined to put on the show “Bugz,” which incorporates some music and moves that will be used in the Marching Patriots’ summer show.
“It’s similar to a summer show. It has to be four to six minutes in length and it’s all percussion instruments, there is some movement to it,” Bowman said. “Everything we did this year, we really designed the program with elements we knew we wanted to use this summer.”
The results have been strong so far. After competing in the beginner class last year and missing the state finals competition by one spot, this year the group has moved up a class.
Snyder said the only goals set for the group, which practices one to two times a week and has about half of its members who are new to percussion, are progress and improvement.
In his eyes, they’ve already achieved those goals.
“We did win our first competition by a huge margin,” he said. “We’ve already won not matter what happens Saturday.”
After that competition, the Jay group went before a review panel and was bumped up to the next difficulty level.
“For going out and accepting that award it was a really big honor to us,” Franks said. “But some of us may say that we’re not ready. We’ll see what it comes out to be on Saturday.”
So as the percussion group goes out to compete against about 30 others at Avon High School, they’ll play for first and see what happens. The top half of teams advances to the state finals competition.
“I have no idea honestly,” Franks said of the chances to advance to the finals, although the team may decline even if it makes the finals due to the competition being during spring break.
“I’m always playing for first but I’m always shooting for last,” Hatzell said. “That way I’m never let down.”
 “Win lose of draw, I want everyone to feel good about it,” Snyder said.[[In-content Ad]]