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Andover Band Featuring New Formations

Wednesday, October, 03 By Courtney Paquette
Staff writer

If this year's half-time show goes well, Andover High School's eagle mascot might be replaced with "Fudgie the whale."

The whale is one of the new formations the Andover High School marching band is trying at this year's half time show.

"It looks like a whale, a little bit," Nathan Castro, 17, an assistant drum marching for the high school's marching band said.

They don't know how they came up with the name. It's also an ice cream cake at Carvel. But they're certain it's going to be a hit.

They're also performing a new routine of songs from the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

"I think our shows are a little bit more whimsical," Castro.

Plus, they dance. Like the sillier stuff in the movie "Drumline," members say.

The formations they make on the field and dancing separates the band from others in the area, they said. They practice nine hours a week before they don their blue, black and gold uniforms.

There's four flutes, seven clarinets, five alto saxophones, three tenor saxophones, one baritone saxophone, four trumpets, one mellophone, one trombone, one baritone and one tuba. There's seven players in the drum line, two pit percussionists and seven color guard members, says Joe Wright, the band's director. That's 44.

Are they good?

"The answer is always yes," says Chris Noce, the assistant band director. They're in all the parades | St. Patrick's in Lawrence. They played recently at a Merrimack College football game and they compete all over New England. But the best part of their band, is that it's their choice to be there.

"We don't require everyone in concert band to be in the marching band,"Ann Sullivan, 17, who is a senior and the band's senior drum major. "Only people who want to be in marching band are in it."

And the best part of being there? An do "It's rewarding when you come up with a finished product," said Nicole Dwyer, 17, another assistant drum major