Yohon Sinclair, a 2016 Iola High School valedictorian and the marching band’s 2015 drum major, said it was not until this week that he fully understood a lesson taught by Matt Kleopfer, his high school band instructor.
Kleopfer, who is affectionately called “Mr. K” by his students, announced this week that he will not return next school year.
Two years ago, Sinclair sat next to Kleopfer, watching other high school bands perform during a competition at Baker University.
“A lot of the really big, really good bands had started to play and he was pointing out directors that he knew personally to me,” Sinclair said. “After he pointed out probably three or four, he asked me if I knew a couple of the things they had in common.”
Sinclair did not know, so he asked for the answer.
“He told me that every single one of them had been married and divorced at least once, and that all of them were incredibly miserable guys when they weren’t winning band competitions; that they didn’t have a purpose,” Sinclair said.
“I asked him why that really mattered, and he told me with how our band program is growing and starting to do a lot better at competitions, that the day he had to choose between winning a competition and loving his family, he would put up his baton and he would no longer teach.”
“I kind of took it with a grain of salt until the other day when I read about his plan to resign, and then I realized just how true to his word he had really stuck to that,” Sinclair said. “He’s resigning partially because he can’t meet the demands of being a husband and a father and a teacher. It kind of made me feel really proud to know that he’s still sticking true to his word and not letting being a good teacher ruin the rest of his family life.”
The Mustang Regiment won that competition.
TECHNICALLY, Jordan Strickler, a 2013 IHS valedictorian and 2012 drum major, had five different band directors during his seven years in middle and high school. Kleopfer came on board for Strickler’s senior year.
“Mr. K’s level of expectation was a lot higher than the others, and with that also came an increased awareness on my part of what professional musicians can do and do do out in the real world and the awareness of what other high school programs are able to accomplish,” Strickler said.
Sinclair said the focus of former directors Larry Lillard and Robert McGuire was choosing music they knew the band could play because of its lower level of difficulty. That changed when Kleopfer arrived.
“Mr. K kind of came in and said pretty much ‘screw all that’ and gave us stuff that none of us could play and taught us to work up until we could play that,” Sinclair said. “It was a more uncomfortable but more rewarding style.”
STUDENTS SOMETIMES viewed Kleopfer’s goals as a bar that was set too high, Sinclair said. But they were never too high to be achieved.
“The first time he gave us the song ‘A Few Good Men,’ that was a goal of his to have us play that song, none of us thought that we’d ever be able to make it,” Sinclair said. “If I’m not mistaken, last year during the spring concert the middle school played that song.
“All of us students were like, ‘No way, we can’t ever play this. This song’s way too hard. But then he just kept working it and working it and finally he had a band that said, ‘All right, we got this. You give us the confidence. We’ll play it, no problem.’”
Michael Wilson, a 2014 IHS graduate and 2013 drum major, said the bar was raised when Kleopfer came.
“I remember with pep band under Lillard we really wouldn’t play unless Lillard was there,” Wilson said. “Then when Mr. K came along, he was like, ‘Alright, you guys really don’t need anybody to conduct; just play.’ That really changed our mentality.”
Strickler said Kleopfer’s goals for the band were high, but also said that was good for the band.
“I think it’s also good of anyone who makes goals to overshoot what they’re trying to do a little bit,” Strickler said. “You want to push yourself to the best you can be.”
“(Kleopfer) set a lot of goals that were going to be hard to achieve, but I think that’s the purpose of a goal, to make you work for it,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair, who is a freshman in aerospace engineering at Wichita State University, plays alto saxophone in the Shocker Sound, the basketball pep band.
Wilson, who is a junior in unmanned aircraft systems at K-State Polytechnic in Salina, played mellophone in the Shocker Sound when he attended Wichita State.
Strickler, who is a senior in medical biochemistry pre-medicine with a minor in music at K-State, is one of the baritone section leaders in the marching band and will perform at the Texas Bowl on Dec. 28.
ALL THREE said the band’s culture changed when Kleopfer arrived, but that change was initiated by Robert McGuire, Kleopfer’s predecessor.
“It felt like we were becoming more of a team (under McGuire) and kind of building a reliance on one another instead of we’re just a bunch of kids who all like band,” Strickler said. “There was the culture of we are all working together to be a really awesome band.”
Wilson said the change in band culture led to it feeling like a family.
“To me, it’s a big family really,” Wilson said. “If I come back to homecoming football games, everybody’s like ‘Michael!’”
As with a family, being in band means everybody is supposed to do their part.
“My senior year (Kleopfer’s second year) everybody watched each other’s backs a little more,” Wilson said. “We were a bit of a family as far as band culture goes. We had this mentality of it’s everybody or nobody. If you weren’t pulling your own weight, everybody would be on you.”
Sinclair echoed the sentiment.
“I know that for sure it seems like he’s turned the band into less of people gathering around to play instruments and more into a family of musicians that is all coming together to not only make themselves better, but to make each other, and in a lot of cases their community, a lot better,” Sinclair said.
Strickler said the band represents the community.
“It gave me a greater sense of belonging, not only to Iola High School but also the community, just because the band does represent the community at basketball games, football games and parades,” Strickler said.
Wilson said he, like others in the community, is proud of the band and its legacy. Sinclair said the band gives the community hope for the next generation.
“The band is the family to go back to,” Sinclair said. “It’s a place I know people are going to be happy to see me and they’re going to welcome me with open arms. And to the community the band, I know it kind of sounds cheesy, but in some ways it’s a symbol of hope that the next generation isn’t going to grow up to completely be a bunch of snobby, selfish jerks that no one really wants to be around.”
WILSON AND STRICKLER had specific favorite rehearsal memories of Kleopfer.
During one morning rehearsal after going through a marching drill, Kleopfer was lecturing the band about paying attention when geese flew overhead. Kleopfer stopped in the middle of his sentence to watch the geese and say what species they were.
At another morning rehearsal, Kleopfer stopped the band long enough to watch the sunrise. Wilson said the band members called it “sky appreciation time.”
Sinclair did not have one single favorite memory, but rather favorite activities with Kleopfer.
“My favorite memories were probably pretty much any night after a basketball or football game because we always took the uniforms back to the school and a bunch of us that all did that usually ended up hanging out and just talking and telling some stories,” Sinclair said.
AS STUDENTS and drum majors, all three graduates observed the strains the job put on Kleopfer and his family life.
“When he told me that he had spent the night (at the Bowlus) or would stay super late giving lessons after school, I would remember thinking ‘OK, you have a wife and a little daughter at home. You need to go home and spend time with your daughter. She’s only going to be little for a little bit,’” Strickler said.
Sinclair said during a three-day span his junior year, the band had a performance Thursday night, a football game Friday night and a marching competition Saturday morning.
“For those three days, (Kleopfer) did not go home and see his family a single time,” Sinclair said. “He brought a cot into his office and he just stayed in Iola because he just did not have enough time to drive back and forth,” to Fredonia, a 52-minute drive.
“I could not understand how he could go that long without getting to see his children and was just staying in his office and hardly getting to talk to his wife, just being around work all the time for those three or four days,” Sinclair said.
Wilson said Kleopfer’s lack of family time was not always apparent.
“When you see him when he’s working, you don’t ever think about it because he’s so passionate about what he does,” Wilson said. “But you especially see it when he comes into the band room and you’d see a freaking sleeping bag on the ground, you’d think, ‘Dang, he’s spending some time here instead of being home with his wife and kids.’”
“He had a family and stuff, but he was always in the Bowlus,” Strickler said. “He worked his butt off.”
COMPARING IOLA’S band with other high school bands was common for all three former drum majors.
“I compared everything about them,” Sinclair said. “I compared what they were doing when they weren’t playing or performing, I compared how we warmed up versus them, how their director maintained authority over them, the director’s presence. I compared a lot of things about other bands to ours just to see what was different and see which one looked like it worked better.”
Sinclair said one of the changes from his freshman year to his senior year was Kleopfer began writing the band’s halftime shows. He said the uniqueness of the shows made the band members have a greater desire to learn the marching and music and resulted in better discipline
“During freshman year (Lillard’s last year), we were like everybody else,” Wilson said. “We didn’t think we were better at all and we didn’t care. About the time McGuire came we started to think a little better because we were getting there, but we weren’t there. Then Mr. K got us up there.”
Strickler said he could see improvement in Iola’s band over his high school career by comparing it with other schools.
“I remember our senior year going to a basketball game in Chanute and thinking, ‘Man, that’s weak. They’ve got nothing on Iola,’” Strickler said.
As an IHS alumni, Wilson said basketball pep band is where he hears the biggest difference between Iola and other high school bands.
“Especially when I’m going back for basketball games, you hear it, you walk in the door at Iola High School and you know that’s a college-level sound in there,” Wilson said. “Then when you go to some other high school for whatever reason and they’re having their band play and you’re like, ‘Wow, that doesn’t sound anything like what I’m used to hearing.’”
Strickler said he also compared the number of students who made district honor band. This year, Iola had 14 members make the district concert band and 11 make the jazz band.
“I’M DEFINITELY going to be praying super hard for Iola Bands and for Mr. K and his family and hope that everything turns out well,” Sinclair said.
He said he is sad to see Kleopfer leave, but he understands the decision better because of that conversation two years ago at Baker University.
“He’s keeping an eye out for his family, which has always been the most important thing to Iola Bands, is family,” Sinclair said.
