Greetings everyone! One more week until winter break! We've finally made it! It's been a super long semester a football games, practices, marching band competition, and so much more. But we are finally here at the end, and I think I speak for mostly everyone that the break coming up will be well deserved.
Here are a few announcements for this week, with information about Disney trip meetings if you missed it, winter band concert information, jazz band concert, and more. Last weekend on Friday and Saturday, selected members of the Atascocita High School band who auditioned and made the region band performed and rehearsed with some of the best students in the region as well as best conductors in our country. It was a marvelous concert, and we couldn't be more proud of our band students who represented our school so well. MONDAY DRESS REHEARSAL: in fine arts, a dress rehearsal is usually the last and final rehearsal before a big performance. The word dress means to address any final nuances of music, and it is often times confused with clothing. For today's dress rehearsal, it is just our last big rehearsal before the performance. Rehearsal times are:
Rehearsals are in the auditorium. TUESDAY CONCERT: this year's annual winter band concert will be on Tuesday December 13th at 7:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium. All band students should be in the band hall no later than 6:00 p.m. All four bands will perform, and all bands will observe and support all performing ensembles until the concert is over. We anticipate that the concert will be an hour. 6:00pm is band student call time. Concert Band is going to start at 6pm on stage, and we will let the other bands know where their warmup areas are. Please see last week's update for concert attire. The students have options this time. WEDNESDAY JAZZ BAND CONCERT: this year's annual winter jazz band concert will be on Wednesday December 14th at 7:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium. The jazz band has been working super hard on an excellent program that we know you will all enjoy. Please come support them. Pro tip: don’t exempt band final. You will have wasted an exemption. That’s all we will say about that. That’s all for now. We will have more updates out on the BAND app soon. We are looking forward to seeing everyone for our concerts this week!
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The Atascocita HS football team was unfortunately defeated in their previous playoff game, and therefore our football marching band season has officially ended for the year. There will be no more football games until the next school year.
RECAP OF TMEA ALL-REGION RESULTS: The Atascocita High School Band is finished with TMEA Region Band Auditions, and we are pleased to announce some incredibly great news! The following students earned a spot in the TMEA All-District Band:
The following students earned a spot in one of the TMEA All-Region Bands and will perform next week in a clinic/concert with some of the best kids in the region:
The following students not only made a region band, but they also placed high enough to advance to compete in the next round of TMEA All-Area auditions for a chance at the coveted TMEA All-State Band:
Two students won 1st chair in their rooms and were champions on their instruments:
The following 9th grade students also competed on Tuesday and earned a chair in the TMEA Freshman Band:
In total, the Atascocita High School Band had a total of 44 spots earned, which is the highest of any school in all of our entire region. We are SUPER proud of everyone who participated in this year's TMEA Region Band auditions! TMEA Region Band Information: Students who made a region band will have information in their folders on rehearsal times and concert performance. The schedule of events for the kids who made a region band are as follows: Friday December 9, 2022
Saturday December 10, 2022
Concert Times: Dec 10, 2022
DISNEY TRIP MEETING: Our mandatory meeting has been rescheduled for December 8 Thursday at 7:00PM in the high school auditorium to go over absolutely every single possible detail that goes into pulling off a trip that is hundreds of miles away. We will go over in full detail the Disney trip handbook that has every single item necessary for a fun and safe trip. Here are a few big Disney notes to prepare yourself for:
Greetings Eagle Family! This weekly update will be super short and sweet, because I present to you.... The Itinerary of Itineraries! It is another super fun-filled week of band goodness, with football playoffs, TMEA region band auditions, and more. You will need to download this itinerary above and have it ready for the whole entire week.
This week, we have:
I go into a lot of very specific detail on every little thing that's happening in the itinerary, so please refer back to it often. There is a whole lot happening this week, and I wanted it to be as concise and easily understood as possible. Make sure to stay tuned to the BAND app often, as I will be constantly posting updates on how things are going this week and if there's any fluctuations to the schedule that might happen. A lot of band students have been working very hard all year long to prepare for TMEA Region Band auditions, and we wish them the very best of luck this week! On top of that, we also have a Friday night Football Playoff game, as the AHS varsity football team has advanced to the next round of playoffs. One big note I want to make on here is this: As of this day, no band student will be allowed to leave campus before departure time of any events. The expectation is that you stay on campus. The Boosters provide you playoff game meals free of charge, so please take advantage of it. This is for YOUR safety - there is way too much that can possibly go wrong when you are not here with us, and we want you and your parents to be guaranteed of your safety. Therefore, there will be no Google Form asking about meals - the expectation is that you will be here and you'll have the meal that the Boosters provide. I will ask the Boosters to mark off who had one on the list and who didn't for accountability purposes. I take the student safety thing very seriously. That's all I got for now. I'll have more later, but get the itinerary and have it close to you this week! Good luck everyone this week, and I'll see you on the other side! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope that you have an amazing break this week. Here is your update for the week of November 21st.
There is no school this week and no rehearsal, but there are a few things coming up: FRIDAY FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS: AHS vs. Ridge Point, located at the Cypress Berry Center. Friday November 25th - 7 pm kickoff. An itinerary will go out soon.
I'd like to discuss next week though, because there is a lot going on. Next week is super busy though! The next week dates are:
A lot more information will be going out next week. In the meantime, we hope that you all enjoy your time with your families this Thanksgiving. Have a great restful week, and we will see you at the playoff game Friday! Good morning, Eagle family! Here is your update for the week of November 14, 2022.
FRIDAY FOOTBALL: The Atascocita Football team has won their previous game and has advanced to the next round in the playoff series. Here are the details:
Link to the playoff game ticket is below: https://gofan.co/app/events/787521?schoolId=TX25492 REGION ORCHESTRA: Congratulations to the following band students who earned a spot and performed in this year’s TMEA All-Region Orchestra! The performances were outstanding, and we enjoyed hearing our band students play with the best of the best in the region for orchestral music.
DISNEY TRIP: I am starting to put together a whole bunch of stuff for the Disney trip that is scheduled to kick off on February 2 that Thursday. We will have a mandatory meeting on November 28th at 7:30PM in the high school cafeteria to go over absolutely every single possible detail that goes into pulling off a trip that is hundreds of miles away. We will go over in full detail the Disney trip handbook that has every single item necessary for a fun and safe trip. Here are a few big Disney notes to prepare yourself for:
**Veterans Day Performance is THURSDAY, not Friday. VETERANS DAY **THURSDAY**: The HS Wind Ensemble (varsity band) will be playing at the Veterans Day memorial service.
We will have more information coming out on the BAND app band page as time goes on. But that’s it for now. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email at any time. rxbest@humbleisd.net Greetings Eagle Family! It’s time for this week’s update for November 7, 2022. We’ve got everything you need to know about this week right here.
FRIDAY FOOTBALL GAME: The football team has advanced to playoff rounds. We will play Deer Park High School on Friday November 11. It is an AWAY game at Abshire Stadium on the Deer Park High School South campus. The address is located in the itinerary on the main band website - www.atascocitaband.com THURSDAY REHEARSAL 3:15 to 6:00: So that we can prepare for a new show for the game. We have a lot of new stand tunes we want to hand out to everyone and play through, And we also want to make our drill on the field and practice the new show that we will do for Friday. Therefore, we do need the full time on Thursday. We can do everything we need to do with just one rehearsal this week, so Monday Tues and Weds, there are no after school rehearsals those days. TUESDAY STUDENT HOLIDAY: Tuesday, students are off from school. Staff will still be here for a workday. There is no Booster meeting this week or the next week. TMEA REGION ORCHESTRA: For the kiddos who advanced and are going:
Our first DISNEY TRIP MEETING is November 28th Monday in the HS CAFETERIA. We will also hold a General Band Parent Booster Meeting at that time to go over important information pertaining to the program. All band students and parents traveling on the trip are required to be here for this meeting - it is a non-negotiable if you are traveling. Important documentation pertaining to the trip and required forms will be provided on that day.
Here are the upcoming calendar dates left on our event list:
Good morning Eagle family! This is the week of October 31st. Happy Halloween! There’s no video update this week - my kid is out sick, so I am here at home taking care of him. Make sure to wash your hands super regularly, because a stomach bug is going around everywhere. Which reminds me - don’t share water jugs. That’s pretty nasty.
Okay, let’s go over the items for this week now! CONTEST RECAP: As I mentioned in my previous BAND app announcement, The Atascocita Military Marching Band should be super proud of their performance at UIL Area Marching Contest this year. The kids worked super hard this season, and the directors couldn’t be any more proud of our kids and their accomplishments this year. REDUCED REHEARSAL SCHEDULE: The rehearsal schedule has now reduced significantly. Starting this week, we will only practice on Thursdays, and it will be at 3:15 and will only be to practice with the dance team for 15 minutes. We will have some Thursdays when we will need a little additional time to learn a new "fun" show for the playoff games. NEXT UP: So what’s next for the AHS Band? There’s TMEA Region Orchestra auditions (happening today), there’s TMEA All-Region Band auditions, TMEA Freshman band auditions, winter concert, football playoff games, pep rallies, and much much more. As these next few weeks go on, we will have more information coming out. FRIDAY PEP RALLY! For this coming Friday, make sure to have your pep rally uniform:
Remember - the pep rally can be chaotic around us. The band represents 100% pride in our self-discipline, so please do not add more to the chaos around you - especially since the senior class is close to us. The band directors would like to remind the band students what our job is - to play our instruments as musical ambassadors of school spirit. FRIDAY FOOTBALL GAME: It’s at Turner stadium against Summer Creek. The itinerary is going to be identical to every other home game we’ve had so far, but I’ll send out another one with the updated date/location/football team. For the TMEA Region Orchestra Auditions happening today, the itinerary was posted on the BAND app. If you are auditioning, make sure that you are at the band hall right after school. A charter bus will be sending us there, and HISD yellow busses will be taking us back. Make sure that you bring money for the concession stands to eat food/dinner during the day while we are there. That’s all we have for this week. Greetings Eagle Family! Here is your update for the week of October 24th! And it’s an exciting week!! We are so very excited to present the Atascocita High School Military Marching Band at their UIL area playoff competition at Galena Park Stadium this week. Let’s go over all the things now:
Rehearsals:
We have a Friday rehearsal scheduled on the AHS football field (Thanks, Coach Stump!) for our team to prepare for Area. The rehearsal will be on Friday because we have a…… Thursday Football Game!: it’s essentially the same schedule as the Thursday game week of the UIL regional marching contest. Thursday we play North Shore HS at our home stadium Turner. An itinerary will go out this week, and look for it to be almost identical to most home game schedules we’ve had with a rehearsal run-through and then departure to the stadium that day. Saturday UIL Area Marching Contest: The band has advanced to UIL area marching contest on October 29th. The itinerary is available online, so please be sure to go over all of the itinerary because it is a rather long day and uniquely different from every other contest we have gone to.
The itinerary is going to be discussed in full detail to all students in class so that they understand what is expected this Saturday. Rehearsals after Area: Pending how we do at UIL Area marching contest this Saturday, potentially our competitive season might or might not end. If we advance past this, our rehearsals will continue with the same schedule up to November 7th. If our competitive season ends at Area and we do not advance past this, our rehearsals will reduce significantly. We will reduce down to only Thursday, and it will be from 3:45 to 4:45. This is just to get practice time with the drill team and to go over our new fun show we will do in place of our previous military drill. (more on that later) Next week, TMEA Region Orchestra: On Monday October 31st, several band students will compete at Spring High School for a chance to be selected for the TMEA All-Region Orchestra. This was a sign-up about three weeks back. If your child has signed up to participate, we have entered them into the contest, and the district has paid their way to go. An itinerary of the day will go out soon once we get more information back from our region about that.
The best thing you can do is continuously check out the calendar located on the www.atascocitaband.com band website. It is always up to date with all the things that we will be doing as a program. That does it for this really busy week! The band directors are super proud of all of our band students! They have worked extremely hard all year long, and now the end of our season is closely coming up as we will be making the transition to sit-down band with chairs and stands to get ready for our first concert performance of the year - the Winter Band Concert, on December 13th. Hello there eagle family! This is the week of October the 17th, and for the week after UIL, we do have a couple of things to go over.
UIL Region Marching Contest Results: Speaking of which, The Atascocita High School Military Marching Band travelled to their UIL regional marching contest last Saturday. There, they earned a Division 1 rating at UIL Regional Marching Contest and have advanced to UIL Area Open Class playoff marching competition for a chance to compete at open class state contest. The AHS band has earned their 15th Division 1 in their school's history, and they earned 1 ratings from all three judges. This is the highest accomplishment a marching band can earn at the region level. All three judges unanimously circled the plusses+ on the rubric for music, visual, and content. The students' hard work has paid off, and the directors could not be any more happier and more proud of our students. Our students showed up, went all in, and the left it all on the field with no regrets. Thats the #championshipmindset - show up, all in, no regrets. Way to go band family! Rehearsals This Week: As for this week's rehearsal schedule, the students have been given Monday off. We will reconnect on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday with regularly planned scheduled rehearsals starting at 3:45. These next two weeks will be dedicated to perfecting and cleaning what we have in preparation for UIL Area marching contest. Friday Football: This coming Friday is an away football game against C.E King High School. And itinerary of the schedule will be going out soon. Just look for it to be similar to a Turner stadium game, since the CE King Sheldon stadium is pretty close to our high school. This Saturday we have no events for the band. TMEA Region Orchestra Auditions: Sign up deadline is this Monday at 11:59PM. That contest is going to be on Monday October 31st. And more information will follow soon as the time draws closer. Area Marching Contest: The band has advanced to UIL Area marching band contest, which is held on October 29th Saturday. We know that it will be a morning performance, so once we have more information and all bands in all regions in our area have received their ratings, we will send out an itinerary of the day. This day will be the whole day, so please have planned to block off the entire day for our performances. That’s all for this week! Congratulations to all of our very hard-working high school band members, and we will see you on the next one! Good morning, here is this week’s update for October 10th, 2022. And it’s a really busy week! We have finally made it to UIL week, and our biggest contest of the year is this Saturday. We will go over everything you need to know.
Rehearsals: this week we have rehearsals a little differently since we have a Thursday football game. Because this is the week of UIL, the directors are strongly encouraging every single student in the program to be at all rehearsals this week. We are unable to march empty spots at UIL, and all performance spots must be filled for the contest. The rehearsal schedule this week is:
On Monday, we need all performing starters AND alternates to come to rehearsal this Monday to determine who will be marching at the UIL contest this Saturday. If you have been talked to about eligibility, your marching spot has already been reassigned. We strongly encourage you to go attend tutorials with the teacher you failed a course with. Spots for this week’s contest will depend on prior attendance, drill knowledge, and performance aptitude. Football Game Thursday: This Thursday is our game at Turner stadium against Humble High School, and… it’s 8th Grade Night!!! Our incoming 8th graders will be joining us in the stands, and it is our job to show them how much fun we have in the stands for football games and to give them the example of what our marching band culture looks like. The purpose is to encourage our 8th graders to love our program and get excited and super hyped about becoming a 9th grade band member. We will talk more about this over the week in class. An itinerary will be going out soon (expect it to be very similar to every home game we’ve had so far). Saturday Contest: As I mentioned earlier, UIL is our biggest contest of the year, as it determines whether or not we advance to the next round. The objective is to receive a 1st Division rating, which is what is required for bands to advance to the next level. It will require all members to focus on their best performance, and for that reason is why we need absolutely 100% perfect attendance at rehearsals this week. An itinerary will be going out soon (expect it to be very similar to the Galena Park marching contest schedule two weeks ago). Disney Trip, TMF and Widdyup Fundraiser: If you raised funds for the Disney trip through Widdyup, those funds will be transferred into your individual trip accounts sometime soon. We will discuss more as time goes on. We will be scheduling a Disney trip planning meeting very soon with all of our trip goers and parents. When the time is scheduled, we will notify everyone. We will go over all the required details such as trip handbook, park rules and regulations, required contracts, and much more. It’s almost time!!! That’s all we have for this week. Once we get past UIL, we will get more out there. In the meantime, let’s use this week to focus on having the greatest performance we’ve had yet. We are reaching the last stretch to the end, so let’s keep working together! We can do this, and we will do it together. Have a great week everyone, and I’ll see you at rehearsals! |
BRIAN BESTDirector of Bands, Atascocita High School Archives
September 2023
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