ROTTERDAM — Amanda Laven finds herself getting listless after the Marching Warriors’ last performance of the fall.

The Mohonasen High School marching band is no ordinary high school marching band. Their reputation around the state has grown to the extent that they’re often better known than many of the district’s athletic teams.
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The 17-year-old senior’s weeknights are suddenly free of rehearsals with the pit percussionist on the Mohonasen football field. And she misses having to prepare for a 12-hour dash across New York for one of the band’s many competitions.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said at practice last week. “I get really bored when it’s all over.”

Long before students returned for the fall semester, the 105 members of the Marching Warriors had already devoted countless hours preparing for an ambitious schedule of field competitions. By the third week of school, they’ve already traveled from the edge of Syracuse to the outskirts of New York City for field marching competitions.

But the work is a labor of love for the students, faculty and parents that give life to Mohonasen’s field marching program.

“You can watch all your hard work and dedication pay off,” explained senior Aaron Godlewski. “You get great satisfaction.”

It’s dusk on a Wednesday, and band director Keith Bushey’s office has become a chatty maelstrom of staffers, parent boosters and band members. Outside, the color guard assembles their flags as the percussion line sounds the first staccato beats of evening practice.

Some students are still arriving after catching a quick bite to eat between their late-afternoon sports practice and the marching band’s evening rehearsal. By the end of practice, some of them will have spent the better half of a day at the Curry Road campus, with the latter hours spent rehearsing torturously repetitive marching cycles while wielding cumbersome instruments or flags.

But there are few complaints about the rigorous hours each week or the thousands of miles they’ll travel on every weekend between September and November. For anyone involved with Mohonasen’s marching band, it is a source of boundless pride that foments almost herculean dedication.

“It’s a life lesson,” Bushey said of the program. “They go out there every time with a sense of work ethic.”

Much-lauded program

In other words, this is no ordinary high school marching band. The Marching Warriors are not a sideshow whisked onto the gridiron as disinterested fans scramble for the concession stand at halftime.

In fact, the district’s marching band is largely disconnected from Mohonasen’s football team and typically plays only twice during the team’s season. Their reputation around the state has grown to the extent that they’re often better known than many of the district’s athletic teams.

Two years ago, Bushey led the Marching Warriors to their first Governor’s Cup, the award given to the top band in their division. While the distinction was a first for Mohonasen, it’s by no means the only honor they’ve received for their work. The Marching Warriors program is also known both nationally and internationally. They’ve won competitions in Toronto and have performed at the Citrus Bowl halftime show in Florida.

No trophy case could ever contain the awards won by Mohonasen’s marching band. Endless rows of gold and silver trophies line a long set of lockers extending the entire length of the cavernous band room as a constant reminder of the program’s prestige.

The Marching Warriors program was cultivated by Dave Bournazian, who served as the band director for more than four decades. They first joined the New York State Field Band Conference in 1982 and have been rising in acclaim ever since.

Their success comes at the expense of summer vacations that end for some band members just a few weeks after school lets out in late June. For the rest of the band, the season starts in mid-August, when the marchers attend a two-week camp that means practicing from late morning until late evening with only a brief break for lunch.

It’s all necessary to incorporate the 50 different steps each member needs to learn and coordinate with the band’s various musical cues. This process is coupled with learning the ensemble from memory, a task that isn’t that easy considering some of the ambitious pieces Bushey and his staff choose for their performances.

“This is a choice they make,” Bushey said. “They love to play.”

Practice makes perfect

This year, the Marching Warriors are performing a piece called “Abstract Impulse,” which borrows its theme from the early 20th century Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. Bushey’s staff selected a musical score by composers Robert W. Smith and Michael Sweeney, then adapted it to a marching formation that is intended to evoke the “neo-platicism” pioneered by Mondrian.

“It’s a challenge and a joy at the same time,” said assistant director Jason Varga, a teacher at Draper Middle School who is largely responsible for planning the band’s intricate movements. “I love my job.”

The band members seem to derive a collective sense of accomplishment from their work. And the bond they form through the long hours of preparation leads them to view one another more like family than bandmates.

“We take a lot of pride in it,” said Jamie Roscoe, a drum major with the band. “There’s a lot of dedication.”

The marchers practice in four separate units, a process than can seem a bit peculiar to an onlooker used to watching the syncopation of the performance as a whole.

Outside the band room, the drum line keeps the beat absent any musical cues; the pit percussion players start their practice inside thumping notes on xylophones and marimbas.

On the field, the brass and wind instrument players practice their steps absent the beats of the percussionists. Nearby, the color guard twirls their flags to a different beat from the notes echoing around them.

By nightfall, the entire band comes together, and suddenly the chaotic sounds and movements come together in perfect syncopation. It’s the moment relished by everyone in the band.

“When you finally hear what it’s supposed to sound like — when it all comes together — it’s just such a great feeling,” said Laven, a violinist who devoted herself to the marching band, on xylophone, marimba and cymbals, after hearing them play for the first time three years ago.

Team effort

The reputation of the marching band is enough to draw accomplished volunteers to help at practices. Art Cornell began working with the band this year but has known about them since his days marching with the former program at Clifton Park’s Shenendehowa High School two decades ago.

“They’re basically the best band in the area, that’s why,” he said, explaining his decision to help out.

But the band couldn’t hit the field without an equally dedicated group of parent volunteers, Bushey said. The parents chip in with everything from fundraising to transportation. Their dedication ensured that the Marching Warriors arrived on time for their Governor’s Cup performance in 2006. A caravan of parents following the band’s four buses ended up driving a sizable contingent of the band to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse after one of the four buses broke down.

“It’s a lot of dedication for the students, but it’s also a lot of dedication for the parents too,” said parent volunteer Nora Sabatini, whose daughter Audrey is one of the band’s drum majors.

But the hard work and dedication is always worth it once the performance comes together, Audrey Sabatini said. All of the long hours, all of the travel and all of the work, “it’s all worth it in the end,” she said. “Every single moment.”