Tiger Hi-Line The
Volume 48 Edition 5
http://hi-lineonline.shorturl.com 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613
Fall Music Fills The Air
Senior first chair violinist Sarah Larsen rehearses for the orchestra concert that occurred on Monday night.
If you would like to check out more music at CF, the choir will be performing a concert Monday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium. Tickets will be $3 for adults and $2 for students, and activity passes will be accepted.
Band captures Division I Tiger band earns unanimous decision at State Marching Contest in Dubuque David Bergstrom Staff Writer
The Tiger Marching Band captured Division I rankings in their performance at Dubuque Senior High School in the Marching Band State Competition on Saturday, Oct. 6. The band members, advisers and fans were thrilled with the results. “We are absolutely awesome, and our teachers are completely amazing,” junior Ambrosia Austin said. Saturday’s results add to a long line of honors. The Cedar Falls Tigers Marching Band has a great reputation for getting Division I in state competition. “[In] 22 years of CF being in the competition, we have received a Division 1 ranking 21 times,” marching band co-director Kyle Engelhardt said. Engelhardt shares the director role with Gerald Ramsey. The CFHS Marching Band is comprised of about 145 students. Each band must perform a routine that is approximately 13 minutes or less and determines the music themselves. “There are no requirements at all for the routines we do on the field. What I do is listen to some music, choose pieces that I think would be good to use, and then on my computer I can do a graphic of how the routine would go, and match the music with the visual of the students. So when the songs get going fast, the students walk faster. When the song becomes very slow, the students move little to not at all. I try to create excitement through the music,” Engelhardt said. The students put a lot of trust in their directors to plan the top performance. “Mr. Engelhardt plots out the whole show and what it would look like on the computer. He shows us how to do it, and then obviously we work on it. We don’t get it all right away, but it is awesome to see the finishing touches and the whole show complete and working in the end,” senior Kavin Sundaram said. In the beginning, it was a struggle to
get the performance right. “The routine is difficult for me because of all the coordination that is involved in getting it done correctly. I am a very uncoordinated person, so that is my challenge,” Sundaram said. Working together, it all comes out in the end. “I follow people around me to know where to go to and where not to go,” junior Kevin Hernandez said. “Memorizing is hard for me, but I have a lot of help with students and teachers, so I rose up to the challenge, did everything with repetition and followed through,” Austin said. “For having as hard of a show as we did, the students worked just as hard or even harder than I could hope for,” Engelhardt said. Marching Band practices every day all year, and they have put many hours into the competition. “We have practiced every day during fourth period for an hour since the beginning of August,” Engelhardt said. According to Koltookian, practice makes perfect, and she said she is thankful that they do the practice every day on the field because that is her main way of remembering how to do all of the routine and music: lots of repetition. Sundaram said he enjoys playing his part in the band with his flute along with having all of the work that they do in marching band come together as a complete work. Senior Jeremy Resch has enjoyed his last year of marching band and will miss listening to the spectacular music produced by the band during practices. “I love to play the music along with listening to it because it sounds very good to hear everyone all together. After my last year of high school I will not be playing the trumpet anymore,” Resch said. Austin enjoys games, playing her alto saxophone and the amazing Cedar Falls High School Marching Band. “I enjoy marching while playing my alto saxophone at the football games, because I get to see my work unfold
and pay off for all I’ve done,” Austin said. “Right now I’m not sure if I’m going to keep playing my saxophone after high school, but I will most definitely keep it,” Austin said. Another alto saxophone player, Koltolkian has been playing since she was in junior high and enjoys playing her instrument. “What I enjoy the most is practicing my saxophone during the marching band every day,” Koltolkian said. Band members vary on their plans to continue their skills in the future. “I play with the trumpet section,” Hernandez said, “I may play after high school, but I may not either. Right now I’m at a 50/50 chance of continuing,” Hernandez said. Junior Kevin Hernandez plays loud along with much of the brass. He may play after he finishes his high school career, but he is undecided at the moment. Koltolkian will most likely not play after high school unless a college sees a future for her. “I probably won’t, but if by some chance I get scholarship money for it then I will,” Koltolkian said. “The hardest thing for me to do, I would have to say, is keeping up with the timing, [which] can be difficult at some points,” Resch said. Junior David Farrell has anticipated the contest for a long time. “I love the contests that the band competes in and playing in the Dome,” Farrell said. Farrell plays the Baritone. “I am pretty sure that I will be playing my senior year, but considering after high school probably not,” Farrell said. Farrell finds that playing the music over and over and doing the routine repetitively helps everyone with the show in general. But for him it’s playing and marching at the same time that presents the biggest challenge of all. “I think [our success] shows that we really came together, practiced hard, all that good stuff,” Farrell said.
David Bergstrom Photo
At the very top, the Cedar Falls Marching Band is on its way to earning Divsion I rating at the State Marching Band Contest in Dubuque on Saturday, Oct. 6. In the middle, before the performance, senior Jeremy Resch, junior Natalie Takes, junior Rhys Talbot and senior Megan Creasey warm up before the performance with the rest of the band. At left, senior drum major Nirmeen Fahmy gives the cues for the band which went on to earn a unanimous Division I from all four judges at the contest.