Hopewell High School’s Titanium Sound Band Steals the Show
43 LAKE NORMAN CURRENTS
BELOW: Members of the Titanium Sound Band spend Friday nights playing in the stands of football games and Saturdays competing throughout North and South Carolina.
NOVEMBER 2019
Eugene Diggs took over as new band director in 2017.
opewell High School’s marching band, the Titanium Sound Band, was quite successful when it first started in 2001, but as the school’s population became more diverse, participation gradually declined. By 2017, when Eugene Diggs took over as the new band director, there were only 16 participants. Hoping to renew interest, he immediately changed the focus of the group from its original corps style marching band to a performance style competition band. By the start of their second year in the summer of 2018, student participation had nearly quadrupled. This year the Titans have more than 90 members playing twelve different instruments. Also included are members of the auxiliary team (students who incorporate dance, baton, and flag into the band’s complicated routine). Diggs arranges most of the music himself, and says its one of his favorite parts of the job. He also creates the formations and choreographs the musicians’ movements. He then shares his vision with his two assistants, Sarah BacombeStertzbach (assistant band director) and Kandice Horton (auxiliary director), and they all work intensely to transform it into a competition-ready, polished, and synchronized performance. This year’s routine, “The Titans of Music,” clocks in at twelve and a half minutes and features songs including “Deeper Love” by Aretha Franklin, “Conga” by Gloria Estefan, “I Can’t Wait for That” by Hall &Oates, “What More Can I Say” by JayZ, and old-school crowd favorite “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. “We put on a collegiate-level show,” says Jeni Pelletier, vice president of the booster club and their official volunteer media coordinator. Since Diggs took over, they’ve won multiple first, second, and third place awards in marching and maneuvering, music, drumline,