The Game Chance: Marching Band ft. Booneville

A weekly segment investigating the rule changes in high school sports during the Coronavirus.

This week we look at marching band featuring the Booneville Blue Devils.

Head into the locker room for halftime, it's gametime for the band.

In this week's game change, wtva's matt st.

Jean investigates how the new coronavirus guidelines are changing the way marching bands get ready for friday nights.

They may not score the touchdowns but if your school has a good band, it makes the football stadium atmosphere electric, here let me demonstrate, meg come on over, play me a little razzle dazzle!

(meg plays drum solo) this is the game change pkg (nats) (josh) the biggest thing we had to prepare for were the safety protocols put in place by the state.

(track) this is joshua forsythe, he's the head band director for the booneville blue devils.

One of the biggest safety protocols for the band is not being able to play inside.

With some of the instruments, like brass, your trumpets, trombones and winds, flutes and clarinets, it requires players to blow air out to get that catchy tune, which, in a closed environment, could make it easier for the coronavirus to spread.

(joshua) for us, i just felt like it was the right thing especially for the safety of our kids and the security in thinking alright we're doing something safe, so we just don't play inside, you know it's something that we can do outside just as well as inside.

(track) because they are trying to keep the students as safe as possible, this year, forsythe pivoted to using virtual learning in place of the in-classroom rehearsals.

(joshua) in a lot of ways, it makes it to where the student can practice without you there, because the feedback that we have.

If they're playing something for us, we can shoot that email right back and say you need to work on this, this, and this, you know, so there's a lot of individualized instruction that can go on that you wouldn't normally have in a band setting.

(track) it's certainly an adjustment and certainly a change from years past, but seniors like drum major nason brown are taking the changes in stride and setting an example for the underclassmen.

(nason) well it was very different compared to usual, usually we know everything we're going to do, we have all planned down to the day, but this year we had to adapt to different things.

We definitely had to make sure we were communicating a whole lot better this year with different section leaders and everybody in the band so that we can be where we need to be so that we can be safe with masks and distancing.

(track) much like an athlete, these band members invest a lot of their time to perfecting their craft, and like an athlete, they are just happy to get the chance to perform in front of their community.

(nason) i don't even know how to explain it, being up there hearing them play and seeing them practice that's different than being on the field performing, it's just amazing.

(joshua) for the seniors, it's their last go round with this you know they start in 6th grade you know that's a 7 year journey and don't want to end it on a fizzle.

(track)