While both football teams opened practice for the upcoming 2022 season on Aug. 8, two other teams vital to the operation of a Friday night football game were already preparing their performances for fans.
Dr. Jon Kraemer at Abilene High and John Landin at Cooper High welcomed their bands back to school on Aug. 1, as they began their work toward their first shows on the season’s opening weekend. For Cooper, that means a show on Thursday, Aug. 25, as the Cougars open the season at home against Keller. For AHS, its first show of the season will be the next night, Friday, Aug. 26, when the Eagles host Odessa Permian at Shotwell Stadium.
Both band directors said the first week is geared more toward welcoming new band members and going through fundamentals for those students, as well as those who are returning and might need a refresher course.
“We start by introducing fundamentals of both playing their instrument and body movement,” Landin said of members of the Awesome Cooper Band. “We add layers progressively throughout the summer rehearsals to get them familiar with moving and playing. As the summer camp progresses, we start learning our show for the first football game and prepare the music for the stands and pep rallies.”
Across town at Abilene High, members of the Oldest Marching Band in Texas were going about their business in much the same manner.
“We spent the entire first week working on fundamentals, reestablishing good tone and technique, and building community,” Kraemer said. “The first day, we started the morning with just our rookies and leadership leam, and then added the returning members that afternoon. Doing so helps ease the new students into the full experience without overwhelming them.”
Cooper’s halftime show in 2022 is entitled “To Catch a Dream” and contains various Circe Du Soleil titles, including “A La Lune,” “Ka, Flight,” “Atmaja,” and “Journey of Man Youth.” Abilene High will be performing a show titled “Guarded” and features music from James Horner’s “A Beautiful Mind,” Faure’s “Pavane,” Sia’s “Titanium,” Michael Markowski’s “Shadow Rituals,” and Brian Balmages’ “Swirling Prisms.”
The Cooper band will be under the on-field direction of drum majors senior Owen Bailey, senior Johnathon Carranza, and junior Aaron Reece. At Abilene High, the drum majors are juniors Sydney Spell and Mallory Traylor, and sophomore Lianna Pfrimmer.
Both directors said they notice a definite ramp-up in focus and intensity in their bands as the season draws closer, and then that becomes even more noticeable later in the fall.
“The students usually start making a focus adjustment around the first football game of the year,” Kraemer said. “It’s at that point that the reality of the first performance starts to hit closer to home. The intensity and intentionality increase even more as we move toward contest season in October.”
