Braden River band marches on

Kendall Carrier gathered his defending class 3A state marching band champions this summer and told them they would not be traveling to road football games this season — nor would they have district funds to fix or replace instruments.

The Braden River High School band responded to their director the only way they know how.
“Yes, sir,” they said.

“I told them straight up: We have budget issues,” Carrier said. “We are real with our kids. They took it in stride. They understand.”

Added John D’Amico, a junior drum major: “We trust our director. When he tells us to do to something, we do it.”

When a district undergoes what turned out to be a $38 million shortfall, as the Manatee County School District did last year, schools have to cut back in areas that aren’t always seen.

Provided less internal account money for her school this year, just like all the district schools, Jennifer Gilray, Braden River High School’s principal, had to make tough decisions on how to distribute the money she did have.

There would be no money for the marching band to travel to away football games, such as the school’s final game at DeSoto County High School Nov. 8, she decided, and there would be no freshman football program this year. Freshmen could still play for the junior varsity squad.

The marching band also did not travel to a game at Sarasota High School Oct. 4. But they did march at Southeast High School Sept. 13, and they will perform at Palmetto High School, Nov. 1.

“You just have to make decisions,” Gilray said. “These are not forever decisions. It affects all aspects of our organization. We are doing the best we can in a tough situation. We want to make sure kids get the best high school experience.”

Schools across the county had to make similar decisions, but most of the cuts don’t look the same, because a school decides individually how to budget its money from the district.

The district directly funds some accounts, such as the instrument repair and replacement account, which applies to all music-related programs within a school.

The district provided no money in that account this year — for any school. Schools could set aside money from their internal accounts for instrument maintenance, if they wanted.

Carrier says his school usually gets approximately $9,000 from the district for instrument repair and replacement — a common occurrence for a band whose practices routinely go four hours and whose season, counting summer camp, goes year-round.

Travel to a road football game typically costs $1,000 per game, Carrier said, with most of the money going to pay for a bus.

The Braden River Marching Band also travels to competitions other than football, such as the annual Florida Marching Band Coalition State Championships (FMBC) at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the Pirates were crowned state champs last year.

The marching band’s Boosters association covers those expenses, mostly through selling concessions at football games and also through fundraisers.

Donna Love, the Booster president, says they raised $1,000 selling snow cones and taking donations at an event this year, and at least $3,000 at a walk-a-thon in September.

“We make a priority list of what’s absolutely necessary to pay for,” Love said. “We have a very supportive band family.”

Love said the Boosters have set aside some money for instrument repair and replacement, however, they do not have the funds to contribute to football-game travel.

Braden River marching band members say they have become closer because of the budget constraints.

After all, those five hours spent performing at an away football game can be utilized to work on a new production that will help them win another FMBC state title, they say.

This year’s production is called “Art” and, in it, the bandmates play music using art as props.
At a recent practice Oct. 3, Carrier and some of his band members rolled out giant paintings, such as “American Gothic,” from a storage trailer onto their practice field.

“It’s a bummer that we can’t travel everywhere, but it’s always good to have an extra run to prepare for competition,” said senior Sam Savage. “Some of the football players do come up to us in school and say,

‘It sucks you’re not there,’ because we are part of the whole hype thing.”

D’Amico, a drum major and leader, just enjoys creating art, wherever it happens.

“We are all mature enough to handle this,” D’Amico said. “Instead of sitting around a lot at football games, we’re playing music out on the field.”

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].