Cherokee High School
120 Tomlinson Mill Road
Marlton, NJ 08053
Phone: 856-983-5140
120 Tomlinson Mill Road
Marlton, NJ 08053
Phone: 856-983-5140
Parent Information
| marching_band_dos.pdf |
What to expect…A PARENT INITIATION… ( and photos if you make it to the end)
Welcome to Cherokee Marching Band season! For those of you who are new to marching band - you are in for a treat! The Marching Band Season can seem overwhelming at times, but can also be one of the most rewarding things your child can participate in at Cherokee!
Marching Band consists of Performances and Competitions. Performances are at football games ( usually Friday Nights), parades, pep rallies, etc. Competitions are usually on Saturdays—some are local, some are not. Parents generally attend both the performances and competitions whenever possible.
At home football games, the band performs at half time and the band parents sit all the way to the right, near the band, up high in the stands. At away football games, the parents will sit in the competitors stands prior to the game as the band performs facing the home team before the game starts. At competitions, the Cherokee band boosters generally wear Cherokee orange and sit together around the 50 yard line up high in the stands. Buses always take the kids—the parents either carpool for long distance competitions or drive themselves for the more local events. The competitions are what these kids are working for so they want parental support at these events!
Prior to each competition, Mr. Lynch will send an itinerary for the competition. On that itinerary will be the rough performance time for Cherokee. It will be sent to you via email by band booster volunteers—we could go on at 10am, we could go on at 10pm—each competition is different. Sometimes we won’t know our time slot till late the night before. Remember -- The time
slot we are given in advance is only an estimate—plan to arrive at least 45 minutes before our time slot to allow for parking, purchasing tickets, findings seats, etc.
Competitions have entrance fees—usually about $10 give or take. In addition, students will often bring money to buy a snack after their performance. For the big competitions like the Yamaha Cup in Giants Stadium and Nationals—the tickets
might be sold in advance but all other ticket purchases are at the door. Even though parents are present at the competitions, band members must ride home in the bus with the band to help unload instruments, have a post competition meeting, and hang up their uniforms. You will pick them up at Cherokee. Some of these nights can get late!
We are a Group 4A school competing in the USBands organization. That is one of the larger sized bands – but not the largest—we will be at competitions with group 1’s and with group 6’s. There are 2 divisions – A and Open.(DON’T PLAN ANYTHING FOR NJEA CONFERENCE WEEKEND)
Scoring at competitions is very confusing! There is a 400 point maximum in various categories and then that gets
converted to an overall score out of 100 – this is from the USBands website:
Music Performance - Individual 400 x .050 = 20.000
Music Performance - Ensemble 400 x .050 = 20.000
Visual Performance 400 x .075 = 30.000
Overall Effect Judge 1 400 x .0375 = 15.000
Overall Effect Judge 2 400 x .0375 = 15.000
Total possible Score 100.000
Last thing—you will see things like air grams and candy grams sold at competitions—air grams are when the announcer says a message to your student over the loud speaker as the band marches onto the field. Usually you will hear things like—“have a great competition John” or just silly inside jokes. Candy grams are just that—candy that you can buy and send to your child that gets delivered to them after they compete. Now—the only thing you have left to do…at competitions the announcer will say… “drum major is the band ready?”…and as a Cherokee parent it is your obligation to yell back--- THEY’RE ALWAYS
READY!!!!
What is Expected of Parents….
Now that you know what to expect, what is expected of you?
All Cherokee Band parents are expected to attend monthly meetings, participate in a minimum of 2 band events and 2 band fundraisers throughout the entire year. The requirements are consistent with every other booster organization in Cherokee.
WE CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU and YOU WILL GET MORE OUT OF THIS THAN YOU GIVE!! This is a terrific way to
be involved in your child’s life as they become young adults!
Welcome to Cherokee Marching Band season! For those of you who are new to marching band - you are in for a treat! The Marching Band Season can seem overwhelming at times, but can also be one of the most rewarding things your child can participate in at Cherokee!
Marching Band consists of Performances and Competitions. Performances are at football games ( usually Friday Nights), parades, pep rallies, etc. Competitions are usually on Saturdays—some are local, some are not. Parents generally attend both the performances and competitions whenever possible.
At home football games, the band performs at half time and the band parents sit all the way to the right, near the band, up high in the stands. At away football games, the parents will sit in the competitors stands prior to the game as the band performs facing the home team before the game starts. At competitions, the Cherokee band boosters generally wear Cherokee orange and sit together around the 50 yard line up high in the stands. Buses always take the kids—the parents either carpool for long distance competitions or drive themselves for the more local events. The competitions are what these kids are working for so they want parental support at these events!
Prior to each competition, Mr. Lynch will send an itinerary for the competition. On that itinerary will be the rough performance time for Cherokee. It will be sent to you via email by band booster volunteers—we could go on at 10am, we could go on at 10pm—each competition is different. Sometimes we won’t know our time slot till late the night before. Remember -- The time
slot we are given in advance is only an estimate—plan to arrive at least 45 minutes before our time slot to allow for parking, purchasing tickets, findings seats, etc.
Competitions have entrance fees—usually about $10 give or take. In addition, students will often bring money to buy a snack after their performance. For the big competitions like the Yamaha Cup in Giants Stadium and Nationals—the tickets
might be sold in advance but all other ticket purchases are at the door. Even though parents are present at the competitions, band members must ride home in the bus with the band to help unload instruments, have a post competition meeting, and hang up their uniforms. You will pick them up at Cherokee. Some of these nights can get late!
We are a Group 4A school competing in the USBands organization. That is one of the larger sized bands – but not the largest—we will be at competitions with group 1’s and with group 6’s. There are 2 divisions – A and Open.(DON’T PLAN ANYTHING FOR NJEA CONFERENCE WEEKEND)
Scoring at competitions is very confusing! There is a 400 point maximum in various categories and then that gets
converted to an overall score out of 100 – this is from the USBands website:
Music Performance - Individual 400 x .050 = 20.000
Music Performance - Ensemble 400 x .050 = 20.000
Visual Performance 400 x .075 = 30.000
Overall Effect Judge 1 400 x .0375 = 15.000
Overall Effect Judge 2 400 x .0375 = 15.000
Total possible Score 100.000
Last thing—you will see things like air grams and candy grams sold at competitions—air grams are when the announcer says a message to your student over the loud speaker as the band marches onto the field. Usually you will hear things like—“have a great competition John” or just silly inside jokes. Candy grams are just that—candy that you can buy and send to your child that gets delivered to them after they compete. Now—the only thing you have left to do…at competitions the announcer will say… “drum major is the band ready?”…and as a Cherokee parent it is your obligation to yell back--- THEY’RE ALWAYS
READY!!!!
What is Expected of Parents….
Now that you know what to expect, what is expected of you?
All Cherokee Band parents are expected to attend monthly meetings, participate in a minimum of 2 band events and 2 band fundraisers throughout the entire year. The requirements are consistent with every other booster organization in Cherokee.
WE CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU and YOU WILL GET MORE OUT OF THIS THAN YOU GIVE!! This is a terrific way to
be involved in your child’s life as they become young adults!
