On Saturday, October 11, I went to the
Rocky Mountain Band Competition at BYU.
I love the American Fork High School Band!!!
I really wanted to see their show, because
the band's Facebook page showed that they were
winning 1st place in every single competition!!!
For the last 25 years, the band has been known as
"Utah's Band!"
They have been the band at the
"Olympic Announcement" when Salt Lake City won the
bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics,
appeared twice in the Tournament of Roses Parade
(3 times total)
two times at Presidential Inaugurations and
the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,
and a few times at
BANDS OF AMERICA
in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The band is the best!!! Every other band in Utah
tries to beat them, but can't!
They are unbeatable, and they deserve it!!!
Why are they soooo good???
Well, I'll take some credit for it!!!
I really enjoyed my time in the band!
We traveled to Reno, Lake Tahoe, Seattle, Spokane and
the 1974 World's Fair, and marched at halftime
of the 1975 Fiesta Bowl football game.
Our band teacher, Mr. Fadley, left halfway through my
junior year to go to Oregon and teach.
We had a new band teacher, Mr. King.
Band was "0 Period," meaning it was before school started.
He was soooo bad!!!
Kids started dropping out. It got down to 16 kids.
My parents wouldn't let me drop out.
We ended up being sent to the principal's office
EVERY DAY!!!
Mr. Brady, our principal, would have work for us to do
everyday, that helped him out.
He understood.
At the end of my junior year, I was called down to the office.
I was introduce to the new band teacher, Mr. Chessley.
A few other students were with me, and we had our picture
taken with him for the local newspaper, the Citizen.
It was a FABULOUS year!!! We had soooo much fun,
and were back in the groove.
Mr. Chessley's brother, Jay Chessley, wrote the book
"Seven Years In Hanoi."
He had been a POW there.
Anyway, at the end of the school year, Mr. Chessley
announced that he had accepted a job to be an
elementary school principal in his hometown of Burley, Idaho.
The seniors got together and discussed the problem.
I suggested we petition the school board to have our
student teacher, Don Peterson, to be the new band teacher.
It worked!!!
He is the one that really took off with the band!!!
He then left for a year to do an internship with the
Army Band.
I don't know how many years he worked when he returned.
But, he was picked to be the director of the
BYU Marching Band!!!
(He's now department chair)
Mr. Miller then became the director, and the rest is history!
When I traveled to the Rose Parade and Southern California
in 2011-2012, I was amazed at these kids!
They were the best!!!
When we wore our band jackets, soooo many people would
come up and comment to us about how great the kids are!!!
Mr. Miller would tell the kids to act
"American Forkish" ... and they did!!!
Here are some pictures of the competition.
Two of my favorites!!!
Jodi Evans Shurtz and Nicole Bishop.
They are cousins.
I had Nicole in my third class...1982-1983.
Jodi was sometime in the late '90s.
And here are some better pictures of the band
from their Facebook page.
Showtime and before.
Once again, sweeping the awards!!!
