Many events have been canceled over the past several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including numerous school activities. Luckily for the music students at Whitehall High School, the marching band season was still able to be held.

According to Matthew Tanzos, Marching Zephyr Band instructor, this year was very different from previous seasons - and not only because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

“We battled two obstacles to start the season: COVID-19 and construction on campus,” Tanzos said. “With COVID-19 precautions, we could not hold our traditional band camp, so we were limited to two-hour rehearsals to start the season. Due to construction, we did not step foot onto a lined field of any kind until the final week of August.”

Tanzos reported the band generally has two songs completely learned with music and drill by that point. Drill refers to the placement of people on the field throughout the show. This year, they only had the music learned for one song.

“From there, we were in a constant state of trying to catch up,” he mentioned. “Fortunately, due to many of these challenges, the competitive circuit decided to reduce the expected show length, so what would normally be between seven to nine minutes for a show was reduced down to four to six minutes.”

In the past, the Marching Zephyr Band competed in the Cavalcade of Bands circuit. Whitehall won the championships the past three years.

Cavalcade of Bands is a nonprofit organization composed of more than 100 schools coming together to compete on the interscholastic level. The organization’s motto is “Education Through Musical Involvement.” However, this year, Cavalcade did not hold competitions due to COVID-19.

“The only circuit that was willing to run a virtual competition circuit was USBands, and so we signed up to participate with them this fall,” Tanzos noted.

Each performance was filmed in uniform at their home stadium and was submitted to the circuit each week. Judges would score and rank each video, providing feedback to each participant.

“It’s not an ideal way to do it because it’s not really a ‘live’ performance, and certain things just don’t sound or look the way they would if you witnessed it in person, but it was absolutely better than not having this outlet at all,” Tanzos said. “We all - students and staff - missed the in-person competition atmosphere of traveling and performing for audiences, but this was at least a viable option to try to help fill that gap for our members.”

The Whitehall High School Marching Zephyr Band finished its season by filming for the national championship Oct. 31. According to Tanzos, they found out the final results Nov. 7.

Whitehall finished in seventh place out of 25 bands competing in the national championships. Tanzos reported they were the highest scoring band from the state of Pennsylvania. The champions were from Kentucky.

Tanzos noted it was a challenging season with all the changes.

“I said to the students, ‘We’re all rookies this year.’ Just about everything from a procedure standpoint was different to how we would usually do it,” he noted.

Throughout the season, students wore masks when not playing their instruments or performing, Tanzos reported. The brass and wind instruments were all outfitted with special covers as an added precaution.

Additionally, the drill was opened up to provide roughly 6-foot spacing for the students while on the field. In addition to the competition changes, the band also had to adjust its protocols for the high school football games.

According to Tanzos, they did not hold a single meeting, practice or event indoors, which called for a lot of flexibility with scheduling.

“There were a few times when rain was expected, we would cancel rehearsal and the sun came out soon after,” Tanzos said.

“Our schedule - oh, the schedule! - was in a constant state of flux, as we juggled facilities, inclement weather, postponements of games, cancellations of parades, school closures,” Tanzos said. “You name it, we had to deal with it. It was definitely tough on everyone.”

Despite the challenges, Tanzos maintained a positive outlook.

“It was by no means the kind of experience we would get in a normal year, and while it’s easy to look at the negatives that come with that, there are a number of positives as well,” Tanzos reflected. “For instance, seniors were able to still have a season and finish their marching band careers: putting on the uniform, performing a new field show, competing - albeit virtually - etc.”

Tanzos noted, at one point, he worried they would have to miss out on this season completely. He was afraid the senior members’ last performance would have been at the end of their junior year. They would have missed out on being the “top dogs” in the band and their high school marching band careers would have been over without them realizing it was ending.

He also reported how important it was for the program to continue growing by welcoming new members and allowing the returning members to grow as performers and musicians.

“Had we not had any activity this year, it could have been devastating to the program,” Tanzos said. “It would have been going back to square one all over again, needing to basically reteach every aspect of what we do as an ensemble.”

Now, they do not need to completely rebuild from the ground level. All that will be required will be a little refresher course, allowing the program to keep moving forward.