PHS Marching Band Hard at Work Preparing for Season

As the start of the 2018-2019 school year rapidly approaches, the Portland High School Marching band is preparing for their busy upcoming season.

Second year music director Mike Sulecki said, “This is the second week for every involved. We had guard and drum line last week, and this week is everybody.”

The band includes 78 student this year compared to 71 last year. Sulecki says the group is, “Slowly growing.”

On top of home football games, the band has several other events on the books for the coming year. Sulecki says, “We are playing at the Grand Ledge marching exhibition like we always do. That is Wednesday, October 10th. We got invited this year to march in Michigan State’s homecoming parade. That is Friday October 5th that we will be marching there. We are doing our first marching competition in a long time. That is Saturday, September 29th. We are in the Chesaning Marching Band Invitational. So, we have a few things to supplement our performance income so to speak.”

They will also be marching in the Eagle Days parade Saturday Sept 8th and the PHS Homecoming parade on September 21st.

A decrease in the number of home PHS varsity football games had an impact on the bands schedule. Sulecki said, “Last year we had six regular season home games, and now we only have four, so we took on a couple extra challenges to make sure we stayed sharp.”

Sulecki added, “Our fall concert, that not only features the marching band but all of our middle school performers and our choirs is on Tuesday, October 23rd. That is going to be in the high school auditorium. It is kind of a showcase for everything we are doing.”

When asked if there was anything else he would like to tell Beacon readers about the band, Sulecki said, “Support the band. Help us out. We are on the verge of doing some amazing things. We have great attitudes in all of our student musicians. We are ready to rock… any challenge that is out there, we can take it. Over spring break, we are actually going to perform in New Orleans so that will be really exciting. That is the first week of April 2019.”

For more photos of the PHS marching band preparing for the season, please visit our Facebook photo album by clicking HERE.