Marching on Columbia

What will Columbia be doing at 4:15 a.m. Saturday? Perhaps it will be sleeping or prepping for a big day of tailgating, football and celebrating.

The band members of Canton High School will be boarding a bus and trekking to Columbia to march and compete in the Homecoming Parade.

The football game isn’t the main event for many junior high and high school students across the state of Missouri. Instead, they’re here for the parade.

“It’s a big deal for some of the schools,” said Monica Miller, administrative assistant to the director of bands. “It’s a tradition within their schools to march in the MU Homecoming Parade. It’s something they look forward to.”

Canton High School has been marching in the parade for the past 15 or 20 years, according to John Hume, the band’s director. The band’s 60 members, their instruments and equipment will load two buses and an equipment trailer Saturday morning, make a stop for breakfast and compete in the parade.

“Band has always been traditionally important,” Hume said. “It is taken very seriously. It takes a lot to get up at 4:15 and leave at 4:30 on the bus.”

After the awards ceremony, the band traditionally goes to Columbia Mall and tries to make it back home to Canton by 6 p.m.

The parade sees many bands return year after year, but not every band has been marching as long as Canton.

Chamois High School competed last year for the first time and is returning this year. St. Clair High School has been marching the past five or six years, said band director Paul Swafford. These schools compete in separate classes because of their size and all are returning thanks to enjoyable experiences in past years.

“We decided to march at Columbia last year because it was close to us, we wanted to do more competitions and I know a lot of the kids really like MU and support MU,” said Amy Stephens, the director of Chamois’ 42-member band. Chamois is a seventh- through 12th-grade school with 111 students. Last year, the band won second place in its class and won best drum major and best auxiliary.

“I know we make it a big deal because we’re such a small town, and we get to march in front of so many people,” said Stephens. “A lot of people have never heard of our town, so that might be the only thing that they ever see or hear.”

Although the school is small, Stephens said the band has a big enough budget for what they need, such as a $50 application fee and travel expenses. This year the booster club raised enough money to buy the band lunch after the parade. Students also raise money through fundraisers for equipment and other needs — the band will march with its new $2,000 tuba.

In a few years, the band will need to raise money to buy new uniforms, Stephens said.

With 101 members, St. Clair has a band that is almost twice the size of Chamois’ band. The school has won the grand championship for the past three years.

The MU band works closely with the Homecoming Committee to coordinate the participating bands. The competition is open to 25 high school bands of all sizes across the state. The bands gain entrance into the parade on a first-come, first-served basis.

Competing bands march against other bands in their classification, which is based on the number of students enrolled in school. Classes range from 1A, which is an enrollment of 130 students and below, to 5A, 1,189 students and above. The first, second and third-place bands from each class receive trophies at an awards ceremony after the parade. The five-member judge committee also awards the best drum major, percussion and auxiliaries in each class, as well as an overall grand champion.

Miller, who works closely with the bands, said the participating bands are a memorable part of the parade for both the participants and the spectators.

“Everybody loves a marching band,” said Miller, “and they would notice if they weren’t there.”