CITSA season off

This summer won’t be the same for high school marching bands.

Central Indiana Track Show Association (CITSA) has canceled its 2020 season in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The organization runs a summer contest series in east central Indiana, including the Jay County Lions Band Contest. Indiana State Fair Band Day is a separate event put on by the state fair and is still on as scheduled.

John Pinson, assistant principal at Kokomo High School, informed band directors of the decision on behalf of the CITSA executive board in a letter Monday. Directors then informed students of the cancellation ahead of the public announcement today.

“After weeks of discussion with board members, fellow CITSA directors, our sponsors and school and state officials, we feel it necessary to protect the safety of students, teachers and parents,” Pinson wrote. “This is not the outcome anyone wanted, but it is the best for all involved. It is my hope that all the CITSA directors will be able to conserve resources, rebuild cash flows, reestablish relationships and come back in the summer of 2021 better than ever.”

Jay County High School band director Kelly Smeltzer, who sits on the CITSA board as the Class 3A representative, held a Google Meet at 10 a.m. Monday to inform his Marching Patriots. He said the announcement was “a hard one to give.”

“I instantly cried,” said Ashlyn Dow, who was planning to try out for her third year as drum major for her senior season. “I knew it was coming but it just didn’t seem real at first. It was hard to hear.”

“I kind of saw it coming. I didn’t really want to believe it at first, but it needed to be done,” said her classmate Griffin Lennartz, a tuba player. “We’ve done so much hard work that I really wanted a senior year. I understand the situation we’re in, but it’s just really hard to deal with it.”

Smeltzer noted the choice was made with the safety of students in mind.

“It was difficult,” he said. “I told them of any decision I could make out of this, one was bad and the other was worse.”

Bad is canceling the summer CITSA season.

Worse, he said, would have been moving forward with the season and having students get sick.

“I could not live with that,” he added.

In addition to the Jay County contest, CITSA’s other summer events are the Monroe Central Clinic, Centerville Archway Classic, Muncie Central Spirit of Sound, Anderson Tartan Tournament of Bands and Drums at Winchester. Jay County finished second last year at both its home contest and Spirit of Sound.

Summer band typically features four-hour rehearsals four nights a week running from mid-June through the state fair in early August. Students also spend a week at Taylor University for band camp.

“It’s like a big family,” said Lennartz. “It’s just going to be hard for us not seeing each other every week, almost every day.”

“It’s a major part of our lives,” echoed Dow. “We spend hours of our summer do it. We literally become a family.”

Indiana State Fair Band Day director Doug Fletcher — he’s director of operations for Purdue University bands and orchestras, and former director at Winchester, Monroe Central and Anderson high schools — said this morning the state fair is currently planning on holding band day but is continuing to monitor the situation. The fair is also considering including “festival/non-competitive” class and moving back the entry deadline to give more flexibility for bands to be involved.

Jay County’s participation at the state fair and other summer events will be dependent on a variety of factors, Smeltzer said, with guidance from Jay County Health Department and school administration at the top of the list. Also key will be how much rehearsal time is available to prepare for performances.

Smeltzer said responsibility to the community comes first and that he’d like the JCHS band to help celebrate with a “reunification concert” when stay-at-home restrictions are lifted, if possible.

If JCHS was to not compete in the state fair contest, it would be the first such occurrence since 1977.

“It’s a historical moment I never wanted to meet,” said Smeltzer.

Jay County’s 43 years in a row at the event are second only to Anderson (65) for consecutive years of competition.

The Marching Patriots have placed third at Indiana State Fair Band Day in each of the last four years. Last summer, they won the caption award for percussion.

JCHS won Indiana State Fair Band Day titles in 1992 and 2001 and has been the runner-up 10 times.