Football Counter-Programming 2025: Week 9--Change is Everything

Last night was the final football game for Jay's Senior Year. The band visited Dublin Scioto High School and it was a nice moment of symmetry. Four years ago (almost to the day), Eighth Grade Jay visited Dublin Scioto to perform the "Wild" show.

So, last night, you might say that their band experience came . . . "Full Circle" (an old head WNMB joke there).

It was an unexpected thing to notice as I pulled drum major podiums into the football stadium to walk past some very familiar red, wooden rectangular platforms. I immediately thought that these props looked like the red props that the Bluecoats used in their 2024 DCI Championship "Change is Everything" show. And sure enough, after asking a Bluecoat alumni who works on staff, it was confirmed.

(The Bluecoats--like other drum corps, probably--sell props and uniforms at the end of each season to boost income for the upcoming year.)

So, Lynda and I looked up the Dublin Scioto band show for 2025 on YouTube and discovered that it was called "The Knockout." (No . . . not that "The Knockout," but perhaps a close second.)

Here is a photo of last night's Scioto show from the sideline, showing the props in action.

 After the game was done and I was pulling the drum major podium back to the equipment trailers, I got some help from my pit crew friend Mark and we both got photos of each of us geeking out on some authentic DCI props.

And this, brings my band experience into a Full Circle moment as well.

I know that there are two more weeks of competitions before it is fully over. And I'll be helping with Bingo events into the future to help provide needed funding for the band program. But my high school band geek self met my adult band dad self last night, connected by a decades long love of the marching arts and DCI excellence.

It's been quite a ride the last decade with my kids and the adults and staff that make this band go forward each and every year. I've loved it!

But . . . remember. Today--if you watch college football (which you shouldn't!) the best and only thing to pay attention to are the marching bands. And, unfortunately, you're not going to see them on TV. So you might as well find something else to do.

I bet you need to vacuum your house. So do that!

Football Counter-Programming 2025: Week 7--Comparisons

Last week was the first Saturday off that I've had since the marching band season started in earnest. So I took advantage of it and didn't do much.

Unfortunately, part of that not doing much was NOT writing a Football Counter-Programming effort. (Though, I did write a tangential call to action post on Facebook encouraging people to think about the value of well-funded schools.)

More on THAT upcoming election issue in a separate post that I need to sit down and devote serious time and thought to, to make sure that it is written well. Not dashed off in the moment. Because it is important. And I want it to be meaningful.

But that is not what this is.

This is largely meaningless. And so is college football. 

(Sure, people are employed by it and all of that. But so is the tobacco industry. And both segments of industry have been given too much centrality and influence is the point I'm trying to make here. . . . each and every post.)

So . . . for the love of everything . . . if you smoke . . . STOP. Put your earned income to better things. (Like funding the community schools that actually try to do good in your world and make each one of us better, more informed, more connected citizens of the places where we live and work and love one another.)

And if you watch college football . . . STOP. It won't miss your attention. At least not until enough of us deprive it of our attention.

So, let's start this week.