The sun is right in your eyes, bugs are buzzing around your head, your socks are soaked from the morning dew, but do not move at attention.  Welcome to the Garaway Marching Pirates band camp, where the weather is never what you expect and cold water is worth its weight in gold.  A day at band camp starts out on a weekday at 8 A.M. sharp at Cherry Ridge Park when the sun is just coming out, the grass is still covered in morning dew, and the gnats are everywhere.  A few things you need to remember for camp are: music, a large water supply, sunscreen, comfortable clothes and shoes, and your instrument.  At 8 A.M. attendance is taken with everyone at parade rest on the 50 yard line.   A rule I like to live by when it comes to punctuality is “to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is to be dead.”

We start with stretches led by the field commander and some running followed by a marching block.  Now this is where rows of about 10 students on each yard line are given marching commands for drill basics, either vocally or with a whistle.  Some of these commands include; parade rest, attention, forward march, backward march, right/left faces, right/left flanks, right/left obliques, and halt.  When we march, we roll step (stepping heel to toe and keeping the upper body steady) and march 8 to 5 (8 steps for every 5 yards).  We might split up into our instrumental sections for a few minutes to review any marching basics.  Then we start our march off. We stand in the same block at attention as before and are given commands.  When you mess up you stand on the sidelines at attention and whoever lasts the longest wins.  Next we take a quick water break and move on to sectionals which is where we break up into instrumental sections and warm up, practice music, and since we don’t march with music, we also memorize everything.  Once this is over we join back together and begin learning our drill.  Drill is the formations we make on the field while we play for the half time show and pregame.  We normally sing through the music to memorize where our steps line up with the songs while we march and we learn the drill in chunks each day.  As we approach the last hour of camp we begin a practice parade.  This is where we line up in our parade formation and march on streets through the nearby neighborhood while playing our memorized parade music and cadences.  Once this is done we take a short water break and go to stand in our orchestral arcs on the field to play through any remaining music and tweak anything left.  When we finish at noon we go over any remaining announcements, pack up equipment and instruments on the truck, and go home.
Now you might be thinking “why would anyone want to be a part of something like this?”  And it is true that it’s not always fun.  When asked what she dreaded most about camp, Justine Miller, clarinet/sophomore, said, “The repetition of drill; pregame is the worst because it’s annoying.  The new people that come in have no clue what they’re doing so you have to tell them.  You're playing and you're screaming left.  You’re helping people hit the line and stay on the right foot.  It’s just 8 steps!  And then you throw in them playing and when you do that they’re just all over the place.”  Also Alex Baker, junior/mellophone, said, “the blazing temperatures.  That and the morning stretches, especially the running part.  (And) waking up early to go to camp.”  Being a part of a marching band that has a camp that lasts three and a half weeks is definitely no cake walk.  Especially not for the director.
When I asked Mr. Tripp, the Garaway band director how he comes up with what to do at camp, he said, “You look at the show as a whole.  The first week we do music and we look at the numbers so we can put together drill and we do some marching rehearsal around the parking lot and practice parades.  The second week, focus shifts and we do marching rehearsal with music spliced in.  Last year we spent time on basics so everyone was on the same page.  You know when the show needs to be ready and you go from there.”  It’s a challenge physically and mentally for everyone who is involved.
However when asked about what they looked forward to most about camp, Alex said, “Seeing all the new people, all the new kids.  Seeing all the people playing the new songs and learning all the basics to our show.  Pretty much just being with friends and shenanigans.”   Luke Warkall, junior/baritone, said, “That it will be my last year (laughs).  No I’m kidding.  I look forward to just the people.  I like being around band people, they’re all pretty neat.”   When I asked Mr. Tripp what his memories of band camp are, he said, “Good old Claymont High.  It’s kind of a blur because that was almost, what, eight or nine years ago?  What was nice about ours was we did 12 hours in one week; it had some advantages and drawbacks.  I think my favorite part of band camp was the people who were there.  That was where you made friends.”  The people you’re surrounded by can affect your opinion of what you’re a part of.  Marching band is a team effort and every single person is important.  When I asked Mr. Tripp why he chose to teach music, he said, “It was just something I always enjoyed doing and I kind of knew around freshman year of high school.  I taught guitar lesson in high school and I did church worship.  I caught the sickness (laughs).”  
As someone who has been a part of the Garaway Marching band for four years, and who is now approaching their last, I can honestly say that I loved it.  It was challenging and there were definitely times when I was tired and wanted to go home.  But I am so glad I didn’t let the heat of that first day out at Cherry Ridge get to me.  Band camp is important, but it is a small part of the huge experience that any kid who has joined will have.  And it’s an experience that I will never forget.