BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Disbelief was followed by excitement.
Bradford High School’s Scarlet Storm marching band earned two Superior ratings as part of an overall rating of Excellent at the Nov. 2 District 4 Music Performance Assessment at Alachua’s Santa Fe High School.
Bands receive six ratings in five categories, with the Music category consisting of two judges’ ratings. Superior is the highest rating, followed by Excellent, Good and Fair.
Bradford had four Excellent ratings to complement its two Superior ratings — one year after receiving an overall rating of Good.
“It was like night and day compared to last year,” BHS Director Melanie Riley-Gonzalez. “I was really pleased with them.”
The Scarlet Storm received its two Superior ratings in Music and Percussion. The second Music judge awarded a rating of Excellent, which Bradford also earned in the categories of Visual Performance/Marching and Maneuvering, General Effect and Auxiliary.
“We were expecting to not get any Superiors,” Riley-Gonzalez said. “We went in and were like, ‘Let’s do an honest evaluation of ourselves. We’re not there, and that’s OK.’”
With that honest assessment, it was, of course, a pleasant surprise to hear that the band did earn Superior ratings. When the first one was announced, Riley-Gonzalez said the band students all looked at each other and asked, “Is this for real?”
It was indeed for real, and the students were happy. In describing the atmosphere on the boys bus on the trip back to Starke, Riley-Gonzalez said, “They were singing and having a grand, old time on the way back. It just made me smile. I was like, ‘They’re proud of themselves.’ That’s what I wanted.”
As Riley-Gonzalez describes it to her students, a Fair rating is basically just a thank you for showing up and competing, Good means you still have work to do, Excellent means you’re on the right path and Superior is stating that “you’ve got your stuff together.”
So, the Scarlet Storm is on the right track. Riley-Gonzalez said a director of one of the competing bands also told her as much.
“She said, ‘I can see the difference. They have improved so much.’ That, to me, was the biggest compliment,” Riley-Gonzalez said.
Entering the 2023-24 school year, Bradford’s band was coming off two straight years with overall ratings of Excellent at the fall marching-band MPA (and a Superior rating in 2020-21).
The 2023-24 year was the first with Riley-Gonzalez at the helm.
“Last year, we didn’t have that focus because they were trying to get to know me, and I was trying to get to know them,” Riley-Gonzalez said.
Riley-Gonzalez said it seemed that some of last year’s students weren’t fully committed to band.
“I feel like everybody who’s here (this year) wants to be here,” she said, adding, “This year, the camaraderie was a lot better.”
In fact, this year’s group was confident heading into the MPA. They wanted to achieve an overall Superior rating. Riley-Gonzalez said she was honest with her students, saying she didn’t see that happening. She based that assessment on the fact that weather limited the Scarlet Storm’s performances this fall and also because Bradford doesn’t have the coaching that other programs have.
“When you’re looking at all the different schools, they have coaches for everything,” Riley-Gonzalez said. “They have a brass coach. They have a woodwinds coach. They have two percussion coaches. Usually, they have someone for drumline and usually someone for what we call the pit (stationary percussion enseumble). They have a color guard and auxiliary coach.
“Well, (at BHS) it’s just me and Ms. Kim (Smith), who does the majorettes. That’s it. That’s our staff.”
Riley-Gonzalez told her students she thought they could get an overall Excellent rating, which they did, making for a nice turnaround from last year and giving the program a positive outlook for the future.
“My hope is that it inspires them to continue to work hard,” Riley-Gonzalez said.
This latest MPA is preparation for the spring MPA. The spring MPA is preparation for the fall MPA.
In the Scarlet Storm director’s words, “We’re constantly pushing ourselves forward.”
“Our hope is that as we head in (to the MPA), the kids really have a good time so they want to do it again next year and that we get the next generation coming up excited as well,” Riley-Gonzalez said.
Bradford was one of 19 bands competing at the District 4 event. Columbia, Eastside, Interlachen and Suwannee achieved overall ratings of Excellent, while Baker County, Bell, Buchholz, Fort White, Gainesville, Newberry, P.K. Yonge, Q.I. Roberts, Santa Fe, Trenton, Union County and Williston achieved Superior.
Dixie County and Palatka earned Good ratings.
Bradford was one of four CC class programs (school population of 1,251-1,875), joining Newberry, Santa Fe and Suwannee. The Scarlet Storm was the smallest band compared to those programs with 31 members. Newberry had 34 members, while Santa Fe and Suwannee had 50 and 68, respectively.
