DHS band shines during Outback Bowl

Students in the Daleville High School “Pride of the South” Marching Band rang in the new year with a few trophies and new memories after taking part in the Outback Bowl Halftime Show and Music Festival in Tampa, Fla.

From Dec. 29 to Jan. 1, the band participated in several competitions, which included marching band, concert band and jazz band.

The “Pride of the South” joined bands from 10 different states, totaling almost 2,000 students, to compete for placements and a chance to perform during the pregame show.

Though the band did not perform before the game, it still brought home several trophies and performed “An American Celebration” during the halftime show, which featured Neil Diamond and Billy Joel songs, as well as the “Armed Forces Salute” to recognize soldiers.

Band seniors Jamie Peters, Chris Roblez, Niles Diggs each said they enjoyed this new experience during their senior year.

“It was pretty good,” Peters said. “I went, mainly, because this was my last competition and trip that I could go on. We had a pretty good time. I got to spend a lot of time with fellow seniors.”

“It was a really fun experience,” Roblez said. “I liked seeing on the jumbotron, seeing the whole field covered with all the bands. It was a nice experience.”

Diggs said it was great to make new memories with his fellow band students.

“It was fun,” he said. “During the bus ride, we played a lot of music; we had a lot of laughs, made memories.

“Overall, it was a great experience to get to travel to a different state, get to participate in a competition with thousands of other people that play the same instruments as you and have the same interests.”

With the bowl game and music festival came television and national attention to the students. Diggs said he was nervous at points during the event.

“(When the director) said one, two, ready, play, I started shaking,” he said. “I had to take a few deep breaths and stop playing. It was unreal because there were so many people at that bowl game, and it was nationally televised.”

Roblez, on the other hand, said he only felt excitement for the new experience.

“It was fun for me,” he said. “I liked going out there and experiencing those thousands of people watching us.”

Junior band student James Waters had a slightly different experience performing during the Outback Bowl. Being a member of the drum line, he had other great performing experiences, such as during a showcase specifically for his section.

“It was more energetic, more fun,” he said. “There was a whole lot more to listen to because we had our own cadence aside from everybody else. We had Sweet Caroline, Billy Joel Medley and the Armed Forces Medley, and then we had our own cadence that we cadenced in and out with. We controlled the entire marching band, and I thought that was amazing.”

He said his section took part in an exhibition and received the loudest crowd reaction.

“It was really fun,” he said. “We got the crowd’s approval, so they all loved it.”

Overall, he enjoyed the experience.

“I enjoyed it,” he said. “For us to go and perform as a drum line in front of everybody… it was pretty much the best experience of my life. I couldn’t stop grinning the whole entire trip.”

At the music festival, the band won first in concert band, second in marching band, third in parade band and jazz band. It also placed second overall.

“First in the nation is an amazing title,” Roblez said. “I didn’t expect us to get first in anything to be honest. We all had our doubts, we have those doubts every time we go to a competition. Our dreams become a reality whenever you hear first in the nation. It’s kind of an exciting title.”

Peters said this experience should be encouraging to the rest of the band members after this year.

“If we can place here (at the Outback Bowl), how much more can we do at MPA when it’s just our local schools that we’re going up against?” she asked, stating the rest of the band students should “keep working.”

“We’ve been under a lot of stress this year with the schedule change with the school,” she said. “We have seven periods now, so it’s a lot less time for the band to practice.

“We still kept our head up and kept going, so if they continue to practice at home and put all their effort into it, I think we’re going to do good.”

Roblez also said receiving some of the awards meant more because there was less time to practice, especially as part of the other bands like jazz band.

“We don’t practice as much as the other (bands) because we’re mostly marching and concert bands,” he said. “Jazz, we only practice once a week, so just for that much practice, to get third in the nation, its kind of a big deal to show how much skill we have.”

Waters said the event was a great opportunity for the band to bond in a new way.

“Going to the bowl, everybody’s on the same level,” he said. “It’s a new experience for everybody, and for everyone to experience it all at once, they’re seeing the same things, they’re doing the same things and they’re having the same amount of fun. It’s like we all become as one, and we all have a good time.”

Diggs echoed Waters, stating that each section and the “rookies,” or new members of the band, came together during the trip.

“I know that throughout this trip, a lot of the rookies who are in different friend groups, I saw a lot of them come together and talk to each other when we were hanging out in the mall, make jokes, buy each other gifts,” he said. “It warms my heart to see that all this work that we’ve put in and all that Mr. Nichols has done for each and every one of his band kids has brought us closer together as a family.

“It makes every one of us proud, and probably Mr. Nichols more than anybody and Mrs. (Stephanie) Robertson, to say that they are the band directors and we are band kids of Daleville’s ‘Pride of the South’ Marching Band. It’s a wonderful feeling.”

Waters said he hopes to take his experience from the Outback Bowl and use it to make his section stronger next year.

“We definitely want to improve on a lot of things,” he said. “We’re going to push our new rookies (more).”

He also encourages other returning band students to do the same.

“I hope they take all the songs that they learned and all the skills they got from that, and they pass it on to the next generation (in the band),” he said.

Diggs said this experience was a great way for the “rookies” to see just how band can impact their life.

“I’m close to a lot of rookies, and this is their first year, so to go to a different state and to put in the work that we put in this year to get second in marching and first in concert band and third in jazz band is something obviously something amazing to start off their first year of band,” he said. “Some of them started band thinking, ‘This is pretty lame,’ but as the year went on, we started doing our halftime show, and they were realizing that this is something serious.

“For it to be the end of the year and they realize how much hard work they put in – the hours of effort, the early morning practices, the after school (practices), the 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. at nights – for all of that to pay off ultimately to get first in the nation, second, third… even though we didn’t get the best, we got placements out of 1,800 other band kids that put in as much work as us is something amazing.”