Coweta County Band Exhibition

What a treat!!!  Five absolutely fantastic marching bands and the best weather in months!!  Hope everyone was able to make it out to see and hear our three Coweta County bands, Northgate, East Coweta and Newnan…*and*…Pike County and Fayette County for an awesome bonus.

How about a few photos?  BTW, If anyone has photos of Pike County, Northgate or Fayette County taken from up in the stands please get in touch with me, Mr. D, at jacd65@bellsouth.net.

Lets get started with with our own Northgate Viking Marching Band…

Newnan…

East Coweta…

Pike County…

A note from Mr. A

To every member of the Northgate Band Family.

To say that Saturday was a challenge for everyone involved would be an understatement of epic proportion. Once again however, I watched as our band family, faced that challenge head on. Current members, parents, alumni, alumni parents, alumni staff even just friends of the program all came together to put on a first class event for our visitors.

Were I to start naming names, I would forget someone so I won’t do that. As I told every person I spoke to before the show last week; “There are no unimportant jobs. At the moment someone needs something, the job you are doing to insure they have what they need is the most important one in the world to them”. Everyone of you stepped up at some point during the day to take care of our visitors and continue to extend the legacy of excellence for our program under the most TRYING of conditions.

I am SO proud to be a part of this AMAZING extended band family and very thankful to know my family is blessed to be associated with such outstanding people.

Have a GREAT day of rest, and it’s time to get back at it Monday with our competitive season starting this coming Saturday.

Thanks again to all for the wonderful work you do and the amazing people you are.

NLTTB,

AA

Valhalla Classic 2009 – Nothing Less Than The Best

What is it about adversity that brings out the best in some people and organizations?  The conditions at yesterday’s Valhalla Classic and the responses by all of those involved, staff, volunteers and students alike, proved to be a great demonstration that mentality of ‘Nothing Less Than The Best’  is not just limited to our band kids and the Northgate staff but eventually permeates all of us.

On Thursday the predicted rain chance for Saturday was 60%.  By Friday that prediction had grown to 80%.  By lunchtime Saturday the prediction was ‘We’re gonna get soaked’ .  Fortunately contingency plans were in place and when the rains came it was more of an aggravation than a deal killer.  Our teams adapted to the conditions, adjusted schedules and we pressed on.

Unfortunately I was wasn’t able to take pictures yesterday.  Hopefully some of you did and I’d be glad to post some of them if you could get them to me on a flash drive, memory card or CD.  If you have photos that you would like like to contribute please send me an e-mail at jacd65@bellsouth.net and we’ll work out the details.

For the time being, I’d like to use this blog entry to post accounts of how our various teams adjusted and adapted do keep the day running as smoothly as possible and to keep our guests, bands and spectators alike, as comfortable and dry as possible given the conditions we had to deal with…and despite the conditions dealt us…make the day ‘Nothing Less Than The Best’.  That said…You can also send your accounts to me at jacd65@bellsouth.net.

For starters, from the perspective of the hamburger cook…We’d actually begun to shut down the grill and fry cookers and covered up the pots just after the rain delay was announced and folks started moving to drier locations.  However, we learned during the heaviest part of the rain that several of the bands had asked if we could provide burgers and hot dogs for them so they could have supper.  Of course there was no question about how we’d respond to those requests.  We had a few burgers and dogs on hand but not nearly enough.   There was a collective “well lets fire this stuff up and get busy” from the cooking crew.  It took a couple of iterations of moving grills and fry cookers to find an out of the way dry spot but pretty soon we were up and running and managed to keep the bands fed then keep up with normal demand as the evening progressed.

Next…

Hiram

This week’s ballgame took us to Hiram High School in…where else…Hiram, Ga.

Mr. A was feelin’ pretty lousy Friday afternoon.  As the saying goes, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor and Mr. A opted to head home and leave Mr. Sink and the chaperones in charge of the rolling road show rather than expose everyone to what was ailin’ him.

Speaking of chaperones…in a rare show of compassion, the chaperones all gave Mr. Art the finger (no, not THAT finger, sheesh!) as we wait for the unveiling of ‘Frankenfinger’…

After everything was unloaded the drumline set the cadence and the drum majors led the band in to the stands…

Once settled into the stands the chaperones began getting water to the kids.  Brandon even got in on the action…

And our fearless leaders kept eveyone in line…

Being it was homecoming night at Hiram we didn’t get to march at half time but after a quick warm-up following the game we arced up and played the show for Hiram’s band and whoever was left in the stands…

And they did the same for us.  Gotta say, both groups were very impressive…

Band Camp – Final Episode

I finally received the last set of photos from band camp that I’ve been looking for.  I knew one of our band parents had taken this sequence but I couldn’t remember who…but now I remember, it was Mrs. Kelly G!  The photos don’t require much description but I’ve added a few comments just for fun….

Lets get’im!!!

Run Alan, RUN!!

NOOOOOOO, don’t doooo it!!!

They did it!!

I can’t believe they just did that!!

Sharin’ the love…

All in fun…..

All Day Practice #2 – Night and Day

The second all day practice was quite a bit different from the one just a few weeks ago.  Seemed like everyone, parents and students alike, showed up ready to work.  Parents Did some work around the band room and cooked and the staff and kids continued working on this season’s show.  Here’s a few photos from the day:

Looks like a government job, doesn’t it?

Mrs. A working through a portion of the guard work…

Supper time!

Thanks to everyone for a great Saturday Rehearsal Day !

Great rehearsal this weekend !! Lots of progress made on the show. It was good to have some special staff folks in to help out and provide some fresh eyes and ears.

We appreciate Phil Larue coming in to add another “Voice from a Veteran” to help our kids understand the depth of meaning the show they will perform has to so many in their audiences this fall.

Special thanks to the parents who worked so hard to take care of the kids, make arrangements for meals, run the yard sale, hand out the drinks form the coke fundraiser and restructure some shelving to make the bandroom a more efficient place to work and live. (Yes, truly some of us “live there” )

Saturday reminded me again how fortunate my family is to be a part of this amazing organization known as “Northgate”.

See you all soon, AA

Banneker

It was a tough night for the Vikings.  Banneker had all intentions of handing us a payback for knocking them out of the playoffs last year and they succeeded.  I hope everyone will take an opportunity this week to give some of our football players a pat on the back and some (sincere) words of encouragement.

I don’t really have a story to tell tonight so I thought I’d post some random photos and maybe a comment or three for everyone to enjoy.  Look back occasionally for more photos.  See y’all tomorrow at all-day practice…

Meeting of the Minds….

Band Fans…

My view of things…

Smile Amanda!!

Thought I’d give a shout out to the Banneker band.  Their group was tiny this year – 4 horns, 9 drums and 2 pairs of cymbals…but as they say, size doesn’t matter.  Ya gotta give ’em credit – that little band put out a heck of a big sound and they kept the the stadium bouncin’ all night!

Valhalla Needs

The Valhalla Classic is almost here!  This is a huge undertaking for our band.  There are many needs and many jobs to be done.  Here are the current needs:

MEETING FOR ALL VALHALLA VOLUNTEERS

There will be a meeting for ALL Valhalla workers on Thurs. Sept. 17th at 7:00 in the cafeteria.  It is very important that all volunteers attend!  We will be answering questions and getting everyone situated at this meeting.  We can use this time wisely and be prepared on the day of the Classic.  We need the Valhalla Classic to run like clock work.  Please plan to attend and get “plugged in” for a wonderful day for our band and all the other bands attending.  Let’s show them how it’s done!!!

PHONE CALLS

We need volunteers to make phone calls (no more than 10) to local businesses about placing an ad in the program at the Valhalla Classic.  Could you help?  If so, please contact Candy Shoemaker at 770 251 4578 or mrandmrsshoe@numail.org

EQUIPMENT NEEDS

We are in need of 12 ft. (or larger) trailers, gators, or large ATV’s for the day of the classic.  In addition, we are looking for people to pull/drive these vehicles.  If you can help with any of these needs contact Jeff Wright at 404 682 8570.

GENERAL NEEDS

Lastly we are looking for large “pour spout” coolers, pop up tent awnings and coke trays for the water stations.  If you have any of these things contact LuAnn Tanguay at 770 252 9015 or 678 378 0273 or
Lupietang@aol.com

Thanks so much for all you hard work on this event.  Let’s all work together and show how great the Northgate Band Family is!!!!

Big John

One of Ashley D’s friends shot some video of the kids doing ‘Big John’ at Friday’s pep rally and at the game later in the evening…click on the link below to check it out…

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mvgx1znzgmv/Davenport.m4v