A Noteworthy Debut

Friends and family crowded into Coach McNelly Stadium on Thursday night to catch a glimpse of what the Spring-Ford Rams marching bands have been working on since band camp began. 

First up on the field was the 7th and 8th grade center marching band. Director Kris Jennings said that for a lot of these kids, this is their first introduction to marching band. 

"They started playing on August 7, and stepped on a field for the first time on August 16," Jennings said.

The 7th/8th band's theme for this year is "Dance Music for the Decades". Their show included "Gimme Some Lovin'" by the Spencer Davis Group, "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, "Apache" by the Incredible Bongo Band, and "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO.

The high school band showed off the first two parts of this year's show. 

New band director Seth Jones said he had had a lot of help putting the show together. He profusely thanked the music department staff during an opening speech.

"The show's a compilation of past Spring-Ford shows," he said in opening remarks. "The staff pulled it together and got it ready."

Jones, who took over the job following the of former director John Eckstine, just arrived in the Spring-Ford area from California at the beginning of July and has really hit the ground running.

In his first month here he has already conducted a two-week band camp as well as begun planning the rest of the year.

The band is playing pieces from three different countries, with the theme of "Red." They will feature Russian-themed music from The Hunt for Red October, a piece called "Krazny" and the "Russian Sailors' Dance". British music is represented by Edward Elgar's "Nimrod Variation" and Japanese music is represented by "Aka", an original piece by West Chester University Director of Bands Dr. Andrew Yozviak. 

The high school band also premiered the brand new Spring-Ford Area High School fight song "Fight on Rams", also written by Dr. Andrew Yozviak.

The school board last year to replace a fight song based on the Notre Dame Victory March. The Notre Dame Victory March tune is used by hundreds of schools all over the US and the world. 

"We wanted something different," said school board Vice-President Joe Ciresi. 

The band will perform the new fight song tonight at the first football game of the season. 

Special thanks to band photographer Andreina Erwin for sharing some of her photos with Patch.