Marching Mustangs to Alamo Bowl

High school athletes may be on break, but the Marching Mustangs band is going strong.
Tuesday night the music to “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” rang out across the IHS gymnasium as band members practiced their numbers one last time before boarding the bus to San Antonio, Texas, where they will perform during halftime at the Alamo Bowl.
It was going on three hours of practice, with the clock reading 9:02 p.m. Matt Kleopher, band instructor, had the band go through about a 15-minute program one more time.
“We’ve never played in front of a crowd larger than 1,000 people,” Kleopher said. “Now, we will be playing in front of 60,000 people. And to watch these kids over the past two and a half years and for them to have something like this, is kind of a reward of all the hard work they’ve done.”
The band is playing in its biggest gig yet — the Valero Alamo Bowl halftime show on Friday. It’s only fitting that the college football game would host another school from Kansas — K-State is squaring off against UCLA.
Iola’s marching band of 51 students will play with 16 other high school bands from around the country.
“We will all come out on the field together and play the halftime show and go back into the stands after,” Kleopher said. “We’re all going to have two rehearsals as a mass band to practice it together.”
Drum majors Yohon Sinclair and Trilby Bannister will be playing with the band for the first time in quite some time. Their duties during the football and basketball seasons are to direct the band.
“It’s going to be a lot different playing our halftime show because I haven’t played in the last year,” Bannister said.
Sinclair was right there with her.
“I’m really excited to be back on the field to play the halftime show,” Sinclair said.
Both earned the role of drum major by going through an interview with Kleopher for the positions.
“It was like a job interview,” Bannister said. “He asked us why we thought we qualified to be a drum major and the sacrifices we would be willing to make for this huge commitment.”
“We’re going to be corralling everyone and telling them where they’re supposed to be,” Sinclair explained about their upcoming roles in San Antonio.
Kleopher said the band has been rehearsing the songs they’ll play at the bowl game for about the past month.
“We put in a three-hour rehearsal tonight, three hours tomorrow, three hours the next day, then they play the football game,” Kleopher said. “These guys are going to know their music, they’re very good musicians. I’m not worried about them at all.”
With the music wrapping up, it was time for the band to pack up and head for San Antonio.
Instead of making just Iola proud during the Fillies and Mustangs basketball and football games, on Friday, 60,000 other will be witness to the majesty of the Marching Mustangs.