Halftime attraction

At King Philip, the marching band is as big a draw as the football team

WRENTHAM - This marching band is not, as popular stereotypes go, a sideshow to be endured while the football team regroups during halftime.

With 21 state titles, the Pride and the Passion of King Philip Regional High School is, many argue, the main attraction at the team's home games, which regularly draw thousands of spectators from its three member communities, Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville.

The musicians engage in "a competitive art form that represents the community everywhere they go," said the school district's music director, Peter Tileston.

On Oct. 4, several hundred fans paid $8 each to attend a US Scholastic Band exhibition at the Wrentham high school and watch King Philip's 92-member group perform. At the competition, a fair number of the spectators were wearing football jerseys.

Varsity football coach Brian Lee instructs his players to attend band performances whenever possible as a fair-is-fair measure - after all, the band sits through home football games every season. As a major school activity, the band is busy with its own competitions.

"Our marching band is not like others, they work harder than we do," Lee said. "They travel and compete in big-time competitions. Playing at our game is added work and time to an already very busy schedule."

His players appreciate the effort, he added. "It just feels more like a football game when the band is there."

That kind of attention from a football program is rare in marching band circles, and the district's musicians respond in kind. At the first home game of the season, referees had to tell the hyperenthusiastic band to pipe down more than once while the Warriors added another win to their undefeated streak, bidding for a shot at their first-ever Hockomock League title.

The band adds "immensely to the whole experience, in terms of entertainment value and spirit and just making a great atmosphere for everybody," said King Philip's athletic director, Steve Schairer.

The band is preparing for this fall's homecoming and Thanksgiving Day games, but the student musicians also have their eyes on regional and East Coast competitions.

On Tuesday night, under a full moon with a chill in the air, the band was working out any kinks in this season's routine, which features George Gershwin's "Concerto for Piano in F Major" as well as a Disney movie favorite, "Someday My Prince Will Come." The percussion sections were beating out rhythms on the football field, while the woodwinds practiced synchronized zigzagging on a parking lot.

A half-dozen parents stuffed envelopes in the cafeteria for this year's fund-raising campaign, and organized a ticket drive for an upcoming band exhibition at Giants Stadium. When practice ended at 8:30 p.m., students and coaches wheeled timpani, marimba, and vibraphones back into the music room, which features inspirational quotes from Miles Davis, Plato, and Wynton Marsalis on the walls. Close to 9, everyone went home, finally.

The time spent is intense, said "band mom" Liz Bugbee. Her freshman son, Tucker, is a drummer, and since he started taking part in the King Philip music program two years ago, she said, she has spent most of each fall at, on the way to, or preparing for a band event. "It's great, though," Bugbee said. "I'm thrilled he's found the thing he loves to do."

It's never far from anyone's mind that marching band is one of those expensive extras in an era of shrinking resources. The school district pays just $32,000 of the band's $139,000 budget, with the rest coming from families and fund-raising, according to Paul Schaefer, King Philip's business administrator. Parents pay a $350 activity fee, plus the costs of instruments and lessons.

The program had been on firm financial footing before recent budget cuts. "I am quite concerned for next year," said Tileston. "I'm not concerned about parent and kid interest, I'm worried about the school district being forced to make cuts, and where they will have to cut."

The safety net is provided by parents and boosters, said Diane Sepe, president of the King Philip Music Association, which supports all the music groups in the district's middle and high schools, which involve about 280 students. A tough economic climate may make it hard to reach a $10,000 fund-raising goal, and the group will be grateful to do as well as it did last year, she said.

"We are very committed to these programs, which is why we are all out here all the time," she said. "The parents get as excited as the kids about it."

The students are committed too. Tileston said there is often a moment at summer band camp - the grueling, preseason sleep-away training session in rural Maine - when he gets a sense of how well the season will go.

It's something in the seriousness of the students, the intensity of their gaze, the way they conduct themselves between songs, and whether they get silly or rude after nine-hour days of practices, aching muscles, and blisters.

"There was no chatter," said Tileston, who started the program 26 years ago with 17 students, and today oversees a staff of 19 paid part- and full-time coaches and teachers. "None. And this was after 21 rehearsals in seven days. Some years you get a lot of chatter and whispering, but this year everyone really wants to be here. I haven't had one student complain about anything this year."

Many Massachusetts school systems maintain modest pep bands that do not march or compete, or increasingly no band at all. Boston officials recently said they were looking to revive the city's once-proud legacy of public school marching bands, but their efforts may be thwarted by the expense of starting up a program, including buying uniforms, which can cost more than $300, and instruments, which often cost well over $600.

Any King Philip student who makes the commitment can join the Pride and the Passion - nobody is cut for lack of marching or musical skills - but seriousness and attendance is required.

"It's about making a commitment, working with others to fulfill a goal, and being part of something larger than themselves," Tileston said.

Senior Christopher Palmer, principal trombone, said he had been waiting for most of his high school career for the honor of a solo, which he has this season in the second movement of the concerto. He'll probably study music in college next year, he said.

"There are a lot of life lessons in being in marching band," he said. "It's hard and it's stressful. But you see people grow, and you are doing what you love."

Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com