Thoughts to the Seniors...

I've been thinking a lot over the last few days about the Seniors, and everything that they're missing out on this Spring. As I frequently do, I try to make the best of a bad situation, and that got me thinking about all the things that they GOT to do! Not all of them got to do all of these activities, but it's a pretty fun list!

8th Grade - 2015/2016:

• Ladies of the '80s show - Hit Me With Your Best Shot / Alone / Mickey / 99 Red Balloons. This one is still some people's favorite.
• While we spent most of football season in bibbers and band t-shirts, this year's group was the first to wear the new uniforms!
• Straight 1s at the Coffee Invitational Marching Festival.
• A wrestling event with the nationally-known Ron Simmons from WCW.
• The Savannah St. Patrick's Day Parade.

9th Grade - 2016/2017:

• Feelin' Caribbean show - Jump In The Line / D'yer Ma'ker / Hot Hot Hot / Three Little Birds-Jump In The Line.
• Hardee's Band Night, where we lined up in the parking lot and played for over an hour.
• The Halloween Carnival and the Haunted Trail.
• Orlando Spring Trip - two days at Disney World and a performance with a Disney musician! We provided the audio for a scene from Tangled.
• Performance at the Georgia Firebirds/Dayton Wolfpack National Arena League game. The first marching band to ever perform at an NAL game!

10th Grade - 2017/2018:

• Hee Haw show - Deulin' Banjos / Pfft You Were Gone / Elvira / Gloom Dispair & Agony on Me / Jolene-Elvira Tag. "What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear!"
• The first Halloween dress-up band practice.
• The percussion attempting to play with Newsong at the concert in Tifton. Unfortunately the *professional* drummer missed his cue, and we had to perform at the end of break by ourselves.
• Brass Choir performing at Redland Baptist Church's Christmas Program in Valdosta.
• The first Spring Game.

11th Grade - 2018/2019:

• Salute to the American Auto Industry show - Detroit Rock City-Drive My Car-On The Road Again / Mustang Sally-Hot Rod Lincoln-Little Red Corvette / Car Wash-Fun Fun Fun / Who's Gonna Drive You Home-Life Is A Highway.
• Heat Wave Drum & Bugle Corp staying at our school and practicing on our practice field.
• First Back-to-School Celebration performance in the middle of Band Camp for all the teachers, administrators, and staff of the Cook School System.
• A '57 Thunderbird in our halftime show!
• Two days at Universal Studios, and a performance at the Orlando Apollos game. We get to go on the field... wait, no we don't. But we got to see Frisbee Dog! And the official Macarena arrangement, as heard on the NFL Network!

12th Grade - 2019/2020:

• Soul Train show - Get Ready-September / Soul Man / Bad Mamma Jamma-Brick House / Midnight Train To Georgia-September Tag.
• The second Back-to-School Celebration performance.
• We were everybody's homecoming game.
• Another Halloween dress-up band practice.
• A superior at Concert Band Festival.

In addition, in five seasons of Hornet Football, the Seniors never had a year without playoffs. Not a bad list! And this is just the band-related activities, most of them participated in other school activities and have memories with those groups.

So Seniors, when you remember your time in high school, try not to focus on this time that you lost, but all the time that you had.