LJ Marching Band: Drum majors

Drum major Miguel Ochoa,

in spooky attire, directs

on Halloween.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

Much to my surprise, the drum majors for the Viking Marching Band that has performed the last two weeks on the field at halftime of the football games told me that the band has already marched in a parade.

I thought, from what band instructor Michael Fiedler had told me previously, that the band merely processes onto the football field and plays in place, rather than moving into different formations as they play music.

You can tell I'm not versed in school band music from how I am wording this. But even though the band members don't move around on the field once they start playing, they do know how to play as they march--as in the parade they chalked up.

Miguel Ochoa and Roan Wadsworth are the two drum majors. They are the ones who wore spooky black face paint and black costumes as they conducted from atop an amp during the Halloween night football game Oct. 31. Both were friendly and informative when I talked with them before the game the following week, Nov. 7, which was Homecoming.

Fielder told me previously that La Jolla High had a marching band "about 23 years ago". There are also photos of an earlier incarnation of the marching band in an article the La Jolla Light published last February.

In their Halloween performance, Ochoa and Wadsworth told me, the band played "Astro Zombies" by the Misfits, among others, in the "Rocky Horror Picture Show"-themed show.

Fiedler has a P.E. credential as well as a credential in music. That way he can teach the marching band period 6 and have the course meet the school requirement for physical education. This is no small deal, because previously students could not get credit for P.E. via their band participation. Then a state law was passed opening the way for this.

Otherwise, La Jolla's having a marching band would be pretty much a done deal--students would not want to go out for marching band if they still had to get credit for P.E. in a regular P.E. class, in addition to their college-prep coursework (i.e., Advanced Placement, etc.).


Copyright 2014 Ed Piper