Friday night lights were missing something last year when the DeKalb County High School Tigers ran out onto the football field. Players hunkered down on the gridiron while spirited cheerleaders rooted them on and fans yelled encouragement in the stands. But the live music was silenced when COVID restrictions prevented the Fighting Tiger Band from playing.

“With the year we had last year, I wanted to make it fun,” new Band Director Don Whitt said of the marching show planned for this season. “We didn’t get to go do [hardly] anything last year. We got to do 3 home games. We didn’t get to do any away games. We didn’t get to do any competitions. We got to do 3 Christmas parades and we got an award for one of the Christmas parades. So, we were an award-winning marching band,” Whitt adds, laughing.

Whitt and former Band Director Tracy Luna brainstormed about a show theme that would inject excitement into the halftime entertainment.  

“Tracy and I are both jazz people,” Whitt said. “We came from the University of North Alabama, and they have a predominantly jazz school. We asked, ‘What could we do to tell a story?’”

Inspiration struck when the two remembered the classic movie quote---“We’re getting the band back together.”--- from Jim Belushi’s character, Joliet Jake Blues, in The Blues Brothers.

“I said we’ve got to get the band back together,” Whitt said at the band room during a break from Percussion Camp last week. “It’s about time that they get to do their thing.”

Preparations for the marching show began even before the two weeks of band camp kicked off July 12.

“You assess from what you did the previous year,” Whitt explains. “I think this is where I’d like to go and then I’d like to take them a little further next year.”

That measuring stick was hampered somewhat by the limited performances last school year.

“Since this is COVID season, it’s a gamble,” Whitt said.

“You’re looking at the worst players to the best players. What does a majority of the group play well? The majority of the group are your leaders basically, and the rest follow.”

Whitt hired Jon Oliver, a drill writer and the band director at Upperman High School, to help him design a show based on the band’s strengths and weaknesses while making it entertaining. First, the band director had to face the added challenge of teaching marching fundamentals.

“The majority of the band has never marched before. The first week of band camp is mainly geared for learning how to march, taking baby steps. They’ll have the older ones, seniors or section leaders, work with them to show them how to march.”

A team of mainly Tennessee Tech music education majors teach students in the areas of high brass, low brass, and woodwinds. The drum line began work prior to band camp with the guidance of Erica Birmingham, a recent Belmont University music graduate and former DCHS band member.  

“We almost combine a year’s worth of teaching within two weeks that I can’t do on my own. They get a phenomenal amount of teaching. It’s worth the money you spend for those people.”

“They [students] start with the fundamentals and they progress. They’ll be working on a song a day. Hopefully, within the next two weeks they should have at least 3 to 4 of those songs memorized.”

Ideally, Whitt would like to have the first two of four scheduled songs with drill show in place by the end of band camp. While improving that segment of the performance, band students will work on the remaining show tunes leading up to the band’s first Friday night action on August 20 in Warren County. The band will debut its new show at the first home game of the season against Smith County on August 27.