Becki Zeipen graciously offered to share her photos from the marching band season.  Check out the links below.  See some you like, you can download them to keep!  She did a great job capturing lots of kids, not just her own.  ; )  Thanks to Becki and everyone who has shared pictures this year so I could use them on the blog.

Jenison HS @ BOA Grand Nationals - Semi-finals 11.14.15
https://goo.gl/photos/j5R7V1ouyYXs8ikB7

Jenison HS @ BOA Grand Nationals - Prelims 11.12.15
https://goo.gl/photos/MRv81YExeNd7RqRK9

Jenison HS @ West Shore Invitational 10.31.15
https://goo.gl/photos/QgNSXahg8YzUGMbF8

Jenison HS @ Grandville Invitational 10.10.15
https://goo.gl/photos/9pcAhbgDrA3rimbW8

Jenison HS @ Rockford Invitational 9.19.15
https://goo.gl/photos/DfrdxLxDfyz7op848

Jenison HS 2015 Home Football Games
https://goo.gl/photos/VtnwAS4h8z7HLDtP9

What a great season!  I had the privilege of spending the last few days with these amazing kids and it was an interesting experience.  They are truly a wonderful bunch of students who represented Jenison well in Indy, both on and off the field.  I look forward to reflecting on the highlights of the season this Thursday, Nov. 19 at the banquet.  

A note about the band uniforms.  Your student will keep his/her uniform at home until after the Memorial Day parade at the end of the school year.  I recommend that you throw it in the wash one last time before storing it in a closet somewhere for the next several months.  Those kids were pretty sweaty after that second performance this past weekend.  It's also a good idea to have your child try it on a week or so before that parade to make sure it still fits.  Some students grow quite a bit and need to trade up a size before the parade.

DVD's from the National performances are not available because of some copyright issues that the company is dealing with.  However, you can still purchase the dvd from the state performance by using this link http://www.mrvideoonline.com/event-details.asp?ID=789998

The end of the season means the end of the blog for now.  Thank you to everyone who has shared suggestions and photos about what to include.  Here are a few more pics to enjoy.  If I have any from the banquet later this week I'll try to post them as well.

We may not officially be state champs, but our kids did win best general effect and best visual performance which was well deserved.  I think we would all agree that everyone involved (students, directors, techs, parents, fans...) has worked very hard to put on an amazing show.  I am so proud of this marching band program and I cannot wait to see them perform again this weekend at Grand Nationals!  

I don't know what's been happening at your house, but at our home there have been a lot of 0.05 jokes thanks to the original one (as far as I'm aware) that was tweeted by a student last night: "on a scale from 1 to 10 how are you feeling right now?"  "like 0.05".  This morning it was "Hurry up, we're leaving in 0.05", this evening it was "Look, you're finally taller than me...by about 0.05".  There were a few others throughout the day before my husband quipped #toosoon.  Did you know that in 2013 Jenison beat Reeths-Puffer by 0.05?  That's no joke.  At the time Reeths-Puffer was in flight III (ah, those were the days), but Jenison beat them by 0.05 nonetheless.  

One note about the upcoming marching band banquet that is on Thursday, Nov. 19 @6pm.  Due to the number of students in the band, the banquet is only for parents and marching band students.  Unfortunately this means you need to make other arrangements for siblings.  Watch your email as more details about the banquet will come out soon.

Here are a few photos from this past weekend.  

The GVSU rehearsal tomorrow night (11/5) has been moved up an hour.  Be at the HS by 6:40, rehearsal 7-9:30, back to HS at 10:00pm.  The final run through will begin around 9:10pm, but you are welcome to watch as long as you'd like!

Check out this video segment on the JHS Marching Band!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi8lQB43bwA

A friend asked me last week if I was ready for this to be over.  Of course I said, "No!"  I love the last two weeks as much as I love the beginning of the season.  Don't get me wrong, in two weeks I'll be glad we made it through and will be ready to take on the busy-ness that comes with the other things that fill our lives, but for now I am content to continue the season.  Afterall, these final two weeks are what it's really all about.  The final touches on the show, the determination to beat that school that keeps us competitive, the excitement of the kids to take their long bus trips, and perhaps the most important, moving the shows indoors so we don't have to sit in the rain anymore!!!  Bazillions of bonus points to the parents who endured being spectators at the Westshore Invitational last night!  I don't know which of you were there because I was too cold and wet to move my umbrella and look around.  ; )

Don't forget to make it out to GVSU on Friday to watch the run through indoors.  According to the calendar on the website, the practice runs from 8-10:30.  The run through will start between 9:15-9:30.  I've seen a couple different times on the practice length, but the run through time should be correct.  A detailed itinerary will come out Monday or Tuesday so look for that to solidify the times.  

I'm washing uniforms as I type this so that they are pristine for our state competition on Saturday.  Remember that inspections are Monday and Tuesday.  Our performance time is based on where we placed this season against all the other MCBA Flight II bands in Michigan.  They average the best two scores from our MCBA judged shows and then rank the bands.  We only had two MCBA shows (Jenison and Westshore) and our average put us in second place.  Since they perform in reverse order of ranking, we perform second to last at Ford Field (around 2:30).  The same rules for the coach bus trip to Bowling Green apply, so see that previous blog about what to bring/not to bring.