Band prepping for final ‘Journey’

The Journey ends Friday.

At least, the marching band part of it.

The Jay County High School Marching Patriots will conclude their summer season Friday as they take their show — Journey — to the Indiana State Fair Band Day competition.

The idea for the show grew out of a theme — faith, hope and love — that JCHS director Chuck Roesch has been thinking about for several years. But he was struggling to figure out how to portray and abstract concept like faith.

Through the process of thinking and researching, he stumbled upon the Maya Angelou poem “A Brave and Startling Truth.” He liked it. The speaker in the poem discusses a world free from war, racism, hate and fear that is only attainable when humanity reaches its full potential. He felt it summed up faith, hope and love.

And when he played a recording of Angelou reading the poem for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations alongside the music that composer Alex Yoder had written, everything fell into place.

“It timed up exactly with the first hit of the show,” Roesch said.

A Brave and Startling Truth

The Jay County High School Marching Patriots’ 2023 show — Journey — is based on the Maya Angelou poem “A Brave and Startling Truth.’ Angelou composed it for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995. She dedicated it to “the hope for peace, which lies, sometimes hidden, in every heart.”

Incorporating the poem — the recording of Angelou’s voice is played at intervals during the show — got the Marching Patriots off and running. They use foot bridges to symbolize the journey, and a flyover late in the show indicates achieving the ultimate destiny.

For some, that moment is when the show hits its apex.

“My favorite part is when all of the bridges are out and the flyover goes over,” said senior color guard member Audrey Hummer. “It just all puts everything together.”

“When you see the flyover, it says, ‘My Destiny,’” added senior Trenton Franks, who is a member of the front ensemble. “And that can be kind of summed up into our show. It’s the destiny of who you are.”

Franks also hinted that his section may be working on some additional surprises for Friday’s competition.

At the Indiana State Fair, the Marching Patriots will take to the track in front of the grandstand for preliminary competition at 2:09 p.m. Preliminary awards are scheduled for 4:30 p.m., with the top 16 bands returning for the finals at 8 p.m.

After finishing seventh at the state fair last year, Jay County seems primed to climb back into the top five. (They were third each year from 2016 through ’19 and fourth in 2021.)

The Marching Patriots opened the summer season with a second-place finish at home in the Jay County Lions Band Contest and have since finished third in Muncie Spirit of Sound, fifth in the Anderson Tartan Tournament of Bands and fourth in the Drums at Winchester.

Defending Indiana State Fair champion Kokomo is undefeated on the summer and is the favorite to repeat, though Muncie Central has been hot on its heels. Jay County looks to be in the mix for the next several spots along with Anderson, Richmond and Centerville. Those four bands have finished in various orders behind in the No. 3 through 5 spots all summer.

While Roesch and various band members acknowledged the hope to place as high as possible, the ultimate goal for Friday doesn’t hinge on scores or ordinals.

“Everybody going out there and giving their all,” said senior flute player Alexander Smith. “Going in, being prepared and just running with the ball, and having fun while doing it.

“I want to be able to walk off that field, both day show and night show, cheering everybody on, patting people on the back and saying, ‘We did it.’ I want to feel like it’s the best show I’ve ever done.”