I am so excited to share this information with you regarding our upcoming performance at ISSMA STATE FINALS!!! There is a lot of information about this event as it is a major performance at an NFL Stadium in the center of a large city. If you have any questions about anything please email me at John.VanPatten@whitko.org. I will be glad to answer any questions until about 7:00 PM on Friday evening.

There are a few important items I want to point out:
1. Tickets are being sold in advance at the Whitko front office. Buying them in advance saves you time in buying them there. Ticket sales will conclude Thursday after school.
2. The Monumental Marathon is also being run on Saturday, and it begins at Lucas Oil Stadium. That means there are several road closures to be aware of. Please follow the directions posted here, they take those closures into account.
3. All spectators are strongly encouraged to arrive in Indy by 9:00 AM. This will allow you to get the best seat and be in place for our performance.

The attached packet includes a lot of information about the next week and a half. To summarize here:

1. Rehearsals for semi-state this week will be Thursday and Friday from 12-4
2. Semi-state call time is 8:00 AM
3. Calithumpian parade on Monday 10/30
4. State week rehearsals (if we qualify)

There's a lot in here, so if you have any questions please let me know. I'm really looking forward to this weekend, no matter the outcome. I know we'll have one heck of a performance!!!​

​If I haven't said it enough, I am so proud of this group on all they have accomplished so far this year! Here is the tentative itinerary for Semi-State on Saturday October 28th. 


By the way, just in case, make sure you don't have any plans on Saturday November 4th ;o)

Yesterday I gave the students another communication tool to sign up for, and I wanted to extend it to parents and family as well. The service is called Remind, and it is a one way messaging service geared toward schools. It allows me to send this service a message which, in turn, sends it to your device. I especially wanted everyone to have this going into tomorrow's competition. With the possibility of rain and being moved indoors, this would be the quickest, easiest way to let everyone know.

All you have to do is text the code @whitkoband (include the @ sign) to the number 81010. It will prompt you to set up your information with Remind after that. Then, any messages I send to Remind will come to you as text messages (standard messaging and data rates apply). There is also an iOS and an Android app that you can use. You can configure the app to receive notifications instead of text messages. I've also included a pdf instructions document from Remind if my instructions did not make sense!

This is just another way you can stay in touch with important and/or last minute announcements regarding the marching band. Thanks!

I apologize to students for not getting this printed out in class this morning, it completely slipped my mind! I'll have a hard copy print out for you at rehearsal this evening.

For those of you wondering why we're going back to Homestead again this weekend, let me explain! Last weekend was Homestead's regular marching band invitational. With the advent of Scholastic class a few years ago, Homestead was tapped to host the Scholastic Class Prelims (that class's qualifier) for this region. ISSMA's guidelines for this event stipulated that in addition to hosting Scholastic Prelims, these sites were also to open to Open Class groups (our class) for an invitational. The idea was to give Open Class groups a chance to perform for ISSMA judges the week before they go to Regionals, should they choose. I feel that is a very valuable experience to have going into Regionals, so that is why we're headed back to Homestead...I hope that makes sense!

Attached is the itinerary and schedule for the contest. I did not include any additional information as it all is the same from last week. One thing I want to make sure you know is that there is a chance for rain this weekend. If the decision is made to move the contest indoors we will let you know via the band Facebook page. Please make sure you like this page so that you can receive important updates should the need arise. Thank you!