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ROCKFORD MUTUAL I N S U R A N C E C O M P A N Y Putting Lives Back Together
VOLUME 77, NUMBER 42
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October 21, 2015
Scott Stich nears his finale at Le-Win By Shirley Dick Correspondent
Shirley Dick photo
More than fifty Le-Win band alumni came to support long time band director Scott Stich as the school celebrated its annual homecoming and Stich and company performed for his last homecoming game
changes from his first year to now. Year after year the music program grew and began winning more awards at parades and contests. Now expectations are high for Lena-Winslow. Thanks to Scott Stich, towns and cities that had never heard of our small school 33 years ago now know us from our band and color guard. Band trips have become wonderful experiences that allow students to go places that they may otherwise never see. In the early years the nights were spent sleeping on gym floors while parents did makeshift cooking onsite. Now the trips have been expanded to visit even more educational/tourist sites. The gym floors have been replaced by hotels and restaurants. The longer trips still include a couple of nights sleeping on the charter bus while traveling. Overnight sleeping on a charter bus is an experience in itself. They have traveled to Niagara Falls, New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Gettysburg,
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LENA — This is the thirtythird and final school year for Scott Stich as the Lena-Winslow band director. While it was a hard decision he believes that now is the right time. Over 50 Le-Win band alumni came to support him as the school celebrated its annual Homecoming. The band practiced with the current Le-Win high school band then marched onto the field and joined them to play the school song one last time under the direction of Mr. Stich. He will surely be missed at the school in his many roles. Besides the band program Scott is a wrestling coach, theatre coach, and senior class advisor. Every spring, he and wife Lisa have provided the community with some of the best high school musical productions in our area. He first began teaching at Le-Win right after college. The band consisted of 35-40 students with 7-8 color guard members. No one really expected much from the band program during that time but thanks to Scott Stich that was about to change. He demanded more from the students and after his first Fall Festival parade the community noticed the difference. He remembers Greg Shallenberger and Pete Brown as two of the people coming up and complementing the “new” band. The next year brought a large enthusiastic freshman class that wanted to be part of the change. The band grew to 75-80 with a color guard of 20 in just that one year. The students were excited and the community impressed. Scott says that the expectations for the band may be one of the big
Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, and Traverse City. In 1993 they traveled to Saskatchewan and when returning home they experienced a view of the largest flood ever recorded of the Mississippi River. He specifically remembers the trip to Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. David Morrison, who was the principal at that time, was from there. He planned his trip to visit family to coordinate with the band performance in his hometown. He walked onto the field and surprised the group. Other band directors were impressed that the principal would go to that much effort to watch the band when their principals didn’t attend no matter how close. It spoke to the pride Dr. Morrison had for the program. The band was earning a lot of respect as was Mr. Scott Stich.
He has so many great memories with the music program. There were conversations and time spent with the kids and parents that were special. One thing that sticks with him is when he sees student years later and they specifically talk about a song played in band. He said often students don’t think they like a song when asked to play it. But he does more than just play music with them. Scott will delve into the history of the piece and make the student understand the music and its meaning. He’s truly educating them. And years later he gets to see the difference he has made when they come back and discuss that piece of music that they may otherwise have written off. His twenty-fifth year the students did manage a surprise for him. Headed by Jordan Liles,
Jeff Liles, and Anna Lyvers arranged for black and gold numbers “25” to be given to the marching band to wear on the night of a football game. They were pinned on the shoulder of everyone’s jackets then covered up with their capes. Scott recalls the band acting silly that night and he was getting rather annoyed by their lack of focus. At halftime Bing Wells began reading a script about Scott’s twenty-fifth anniversary at the school and all the students threw back their capes to expose the “25” they were wearing for him. It was a special moment and he felt a little bad about being gruff with them earlier! The students have had a special relationship with director Scott Stich. At last week’s
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