Pride of Cove Band gears up for 2018-19 season

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

The Pride of Cove Marching Band can be heard practicing by residents who live near the high school, as students practice their marching and movement as one group. 
Freshman band members began training for the 2018-2019 school year on July 30. Tuesday marked the second day of the second week of practice when the rest of the band and Color Guard joined the freshmen in the parking lot next to the Lea Ledger Auditorium and Band Hall. 
This year, Copperas Cove Independent School District and Copperas Cove High School have a new first-year teacher who is helping oversee the training- Mr. Frank Jacobo. Jacobo graduated from Texas State Unviersity where he played in the Wind Ensemble as well as the Drum Line. He has also marched with independent groups such as the Guardians Drum and Bugle Corps and Rhythmic Force Percussion.
Jacobo is the Percussion Coordinator for the district and will also be teaching concert band and overseeing the Drum Line and Wind Ensemble, in addition to assisting the other band directors, Nancy Norris and Tony Chapa. 
He said he hopes to bring everything he’s learned from the independent scene with him as he works with the Pride of Cove. 
During Tuesday evening’s practice, Jacobo reminded the students of meeting their goals. 
The band will be performing at Convocation on August 14, just one day before school starts. On August 16, the students begin learning their halftime show, which will feature music from the opera, Carmen. 
“I feel like if we have discipline, structure and we have the right mindset from everyone, as a band we’re going to be able to reach those goals because they will allow us to put in all the effort that we need to,” Jacobo said. “They will allow us to think the same way and if we all work together, we’ll be in unison, right? We’ll be a group.”
Jacobo said he was appreciative of the entire band community being supportive of him as a first year teacher and allowing him to come in and give his own input. 
“Everyone that has come in summer band, they’ve been really motivated and they’ve all been willing to work hard and they’ve also been accepting of my feedback,” Jacobo said. “And that allows us to reach the next step in the band of- what we want to do with our goals and try and take them to new levels.”
This year, all four Drum Majors are girls, including senior Emilee Kirk, who said she was looking forward to this year. 
“This upcoming Freshman class has a lot of potential which is going to be really good for our show this year,” Kirk said. “Compared to our other classes, they show mass improvement compared to everybody else, so I really think we have a good chance going into our competitions this year.”
Since the band won’t be learning the show until the second day of school, they work on the fundamentals and basics of marching during the day camps, Kirk said. That includes doing stretches and exercises, led by Symphonic Band and Color Guard Director, Nancy Norris.  
One of the incoming freshman members, Lyric Richardson, said she has enjoyed her time as a member of the Pride of Cove Marching band so far. 
“Everyone’s really nice,” Richardson said. “The section leaders, they’re really understanding with how everybody’s coming in, because we’re all freshmen, and they understand that this year’s going to be, like, a load work because we just came in from middle school so it’s like a completely different change.” 
Richardson, who plays the clarinet, has only been a band student since the 8th grade at Copperas Cove Junior High School. Her current struggle is trying to catch up to her fellow band kids in sight reading, she said. She practices at home and during the band practices, she added. 
Going from a school of 800 students to one with 2,000 students is a bit daunting, but Richardson said it helps that she’ll know her fellow band members once the school year starts. 
The thing she is looking forward to most is meeting everybody and learning their names, including the seniors that will be leaving come May as well as the classmates she will be spending the next four years with, she said. 
On top of band, Richardson will also be taking Pre-AP classes. 
“I would like to make Straight A’s, but I know that’s going to be a challenge because of all my harder classes,” Richardson said. “But I know that if I try hard enough, I will make it.”