After an overnight bus ride, the Iola High School marching band arrived in San Antonio last Wednesday with just enough time to stretch their legs before assembling on the town’s famed River Walk for a loosely organized concert.
Iola joined a handful of other distinguished high school bands who received invitations to perform at the halftime show of Friday’s Alamo Bowl. But on that preceding Wednesday evening, with still two days left to rehearse for the big event, the band’s focus was on the River Walk.
“Our River Walk show had a higher priority than the game. At least in my mind it did,” said band director Matt Kleopfer.
As for the elaborate halftime show, when Iola would combine its playing with an additional 13 high school bands in an en masse performance, Kleopfer knew that it would be difficult among the surge of instrumentation to pick out the familiar Mustang sound.
But on a quiet midweek evening along the river, the IHS band shone: “The guy who was working the River Walk show — he’d been doing this gig for 20 years — he said our show was one of the most interactive and energetic shows he’d ever seen. Each band had 10 minutes on the River Walk to play a sort of pep rally tune to get the crowd pumped up. This is what we do; this is our A-game — these kids rocked out. We had the other high school bands walking up to us to watch what was going on.”
Kleopfer is proud of his students’ discipline: “We drove that whole night. They were really tired when they played that show, and still managed to pull the energy from somewhere.”
But he’s prouder of the character they demonstrated off the field: “That’s where I was most impressed with this group. They knew that a lot of people were watching them on this trip, even when they weren’t playing. They had a great attitude. They were polite, they were generous. And, for me, just watching them like that, just by itself, that was rewarding — it didn’t matter how well we played.”
But that was never in doubt: the Marching Mustangs played well. The halftime show at this year’s Alamo Bowl was a triumph. So much so that Kleopfer plans to aim bigger in subsequent years. He’s got his eye on the Rose Bowl, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “I want to find something to get these kids back in the national spotlight every two years; something where the camera is on them and the expectations are high. Having a goal in mind is a high priority.”
Two band members, Tyler Holloway (snare) and Garrett Prall (tuba), will graduate this year and won’t get another turn at a large-scale high school trip. But they both cherished last week’s performance before the crowd of 60,000. And they both expect to carry the band skills they’ve honed under Mr. K onto the college stage — Holloway at Pittsburg State University, Prall at K-State.
Asked to sum up his band career at Iola, Holloway gives the unfair proposition due thought. “I guess how I would answer that question: playing music is something I’m really, really passionate about. And being in this very accelerated program, we’re all being challenged all the time. I love that.”
Marching Mustangs remember the Alamo
