Rainier High School’s new marching band, composed of 25 students and led by director Adam Cornwall, made its debut performance at halftime of the football team’s home opener against Tenino on Sept. 6.
The band performed music from the 1970s and 1980s and created the letters “RHS” on the field, and their performance drew a large round of applause from the Mountaineers faithful.
The band is the second at the high school, joining the traditional pep band that hosts concerts and is seen at RHS sporting events. While students enjoyed the pep band, they craved more. Cornwall was initially hesitant to the idea, but the former Capital High School marching band drummer eventually gave the green light.
“The drive really came from the kids. They’ve been asking, ‘When can we do a marching band?’ I dragged my feet on it for a while because the last time I did marching band was when I was in high school,” Cornwall said. “My experience in it, I felt, has been kind of the sticking point to that.”
All but two of the pep band members are part of the marching band, which involves performing synchronized movements and shapes on the field while playing instruments. A parent even donated T-shirts and sweatshirts for the band so they can match on the field.
“It’s been a long time that I’ve had parents that were that involved in the band,” Cornwall said.
While Cornwall admitted that he has been learning the ins and outs of the marching band once again while simultaneously teaching the fundamentals to his students, he enjoys the enthusiasm that the students have shown to the marching style and the pursuit of perfection.
“Our motto is ‘strive for perfection.’ We know perfection is not something that happens very often, if at all, but our goal is to constantly strive for perfection,” Cornwall said. “We want people that, when they see us, they know that we’re going to be giving it everything we have.”
He added that the students have “probably adapted faster than I have” to the new style of performance. They had initially planned to put on what’s called a park-and-bark show where the band stands in one place and performs, but students wanted to push the level of creativity, so they practiced all summer to perform the “RHS” letters.
“They love it. Last week, we started practicing sideways marching and backwards marching because they want to do some more complicated movements,” Cornwall said. “They’re eating it up. They’re hungry for it. They really want to do this stuff, and so I want to make sure that I give it to them.”
Cornwall credited alto saxophonist Caleb Stover, flutist Annabelle Whiteman and lead trumpeter Keira McNeely with their leadership and energy in reaching the band’s collective goal, which is to have fun.
“My band director in high school was Dan Lundberg, and I learned a lot of what goes into a show, but what I think I learned from him was that marching needs to be fun,” Cornwall said. “There’s a lot of discipline that goes into it, but if it’s not fun, it’s harder to buy into. We had to make sure we had fun. That’s what I would love to instill in my kids is to have fun and enjoy the process. That’s what’s going to take us far.
“Five years from now, I would love my band room to be packed with people who want to be part of what we have. What we have here is family. This is a family,” he added. “The band kids will go to each other and talk problems out. They rely on each other a lot, and I want people to see that. I want the kids to have that experience where there’s always somebody there for them.”
The marching band will next perform at the Mountaineers home football game against Onalaska on Friday, Sept. 27.
