The Shawnee High School marching band recorded its highest score in school history, a 97.438, on its way to finishing in third place at the United States Scholastic Band Association’s National Championship held at the Naval Academy Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.
Marching Band Director Nick Rotindo said the band also won an award at nationals for best music, which he thinks is the most prestigious award because in the end, the most important part of marching band is the music.
He said the marching band lost by only five one hundreds of a point, “basically a tie.”
“This year’s kids worked very, very, very hard,” Rotindo said.
The band also took the honor for Cadets Drum and Bugle Corp Award of Excellence. The United States Scholastic Band Association had two days of national championships, one in Allentown for the A bands, and one in Annapolis for the Open bands.
According to USSBA guidelines the Open Class is for the elite programs that have established themselves competitively over the years, and the A level of classifications is generally for developing bands aspiring to become Open.
Shawnee has been competing in the Open Class for several years.
“The kids actually came to me and said ‘We want to go open,’” Rotindo said. “Even though the A Class would have been a much easier way to win a championship, they wanted to compete against the best even if it meant not winning.
“It was that hard work that really separated that band from the rest,” he added. The band practiced for about 200 hours before going to the nationals.
The director said the challenging part of what he does is realizing students have other obligations like academics, other clubs, and family life and that marching band isn’t their whole lives.
Rotindo said seeing the pride in band members’ faces after a good performance is the most rewarding aspect of what he does.
Out of 73 kids in the band, only 17 are seniors.
“Next year’s band is looking very strong,” he said. Rotindo is in his tenth year teaching marching band at Shawnee.
He said the program has tremendous support from the administration and parents.
There are as many as 70 parents in the band parent group. They help with production by doing things like holding up props during competitions.
“They give up the chance to watch their kids in the stands to actually be on the field performing,” Rotindo said.
Senior Cassie Bozicek plays baritone horn in the marching band.
“I’m very impressed and proud of how far we’ve come,” she said, noting it was a young band. “We did the best we could have done.”
Bozicek said she plans on playing the trombone in college.
“Wherever I go if they have a jazz band I will participate,” she said.
Erin Posch, also a senior, plays piccolo and is a drum major.
“I like that it’s a great group of kids and we work really hard,” she said, adding practicing routines over and over again for the seven minutes in competition is challenging.
“It’s only seven minutes,” Posch said. “We put so many hours into those seven minutes.”
She said she will play flute and piccolo in college.
Lindsay Wylie, also a senior, has been playing flute in marching band for four years.
“I’m really proud of the whole band,” she said, noting the season did not start well. “We’ve had the biggest growth that any band has had here in my experience.”
Marty Rotindo (Nick’s brother), teaches business at Shawnee and is assistant band director.
“This year everything clicked,” he said. “You get to see them progress from freshmen to seniors and see how much they grow up as human beings, how much they grow up as leaders, it’s great to see growth.”
The band’s third place finish compliments their Yamaha Cup Championship in October and their Group 3 Open New Jersey State Championship.
