COVINGTON, Ga. — Eastside High School’s marching band has worked to get accustomed to a number of new things this year — new practice field, new school building, new show and new director.
Nevertheless, the 110-member The Pride of Eastside (TPOE) band has adjusted pretty well in providing its usual high quality musicianship and performances, said director Elijah Clark.
Clark assisted longtime director Alan Fowler before assuming the reins of Eastside’s marching band this year after Fowler’s retirement in July after three decades.
In addition to performing at Eastside High football games this fall, the band earned a First in Class award at the Oconee Classic Marching Contest Sept. 25 in Milledgeville. It competed in Class 3A against other bands its size, Clark said.
TPOE also recently performed its “Soaring into a New Era” show in the Peach State Marching Competition in Rome, Georgia; and played a marching band exhibition in Athens.
Clark said the band worked to do rehearsals in a parking lot at the new school campus on Ga. Hwy. 142 but was unable to fully utilize it because the lot still was not completed on the new school's campus.
TPOE also does not have a full practice area on which to train, he said.
However, in rehearsing for its new show, “the kids have taken it and done a really good job with it,” Clark said.
The first-year band director is an Eastside graduate who performed in The Pride of Eastside under Fowler’s direction.
Numerous Pride of Eastside members have gone on to play in college bands nationwide — including many with UGA’s famed Redcoat Band. Clark went on to become a member of the Auburn University Marching Band before graduating and returning to Eastside as an arts educator.
Clark noted all high school marching bands in Newton County saw their numbers dwindle during the pandemic. However, he said TPOE is “right on track” to regaining its previous size with 110 members, including 20 ninth-graders. A total of 30 graduated in May, he said.
The ninth-grade band members have been able to overcome the physical and mental challenges of playing music in tune while marching in time with other band members, Clark said.
“It takes a while getting used to marching and playing at the same time,” Clark said.
He said band members “do a lot of conditioning” — such as cardio and calisthenics — to prepare for a football and competition season that begins in 95-degree heat and generally ends in freezing weather.
Band members performing a halftime show are required to learn to control their breathing while marching continuously for 10 minutes, he said.
“It’s very close to sprinting for 10 minutes,” Clark said.
TPOE is led by drum majors Sarah Dalton, Dakota Cooper and Kendi Dublin.
Its new show is updated for 2022 and includes music from “Top Gun” and “How to Train Your Dragon,” as well as the song “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked.”
“The kids have played the heck out of it,” Clark said.
Its future performances are scheduled to include the annual Covington Lions Club Christmas Parade and, tentatively, the Black History Month parade in Covington first organized in 2021.
It also has been invited to perform in the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in April 2023 in Washington, D.C., and is raising funds to make the trip, he said.
