Blue Devil Marching Band is 3rd in State Championships
The Huntington High School Blue Devil marching band closed out another successful competitive season by finishing third in the New York State Field Band Conference Large School 3 Class Championships at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse last weekend. More than 50 bands from across the state participated in the event.
"Having the honor of working with a group of students as amazing as this is why people teach," said Jason Giachetti, who co-directs the band along with colleague Brian Stellato. "The band played, marched and spun their hearts out and had their best performance of the season."
The Blue Devil band's score of 83.15 was its highest of the fall campaign and trailed only Kingston (85.60) and Copiague (84.30) in the state championship's final standings.
"I've been working with this band for 13 years and this is the first time I cried when it was over," Mr. Giachetti said. "The band's performance at the dome was nothing short of spectacular."
The Blue Devil marching band is led by drum majors Laura Ironman, Jonathan Wood and Brian McConnell, field major Francesca Gray, woodwind captain Giselle Aparacio, brass captain Matthew Beeby, drum captain Shannon Smith, color guard captains Monica Casabona and Alexandra Reinertsen, flute section leaders Kevin Solomowitz and Alexandra Grabowski, clarinet section leaders Francesca Gray and Joellen Cede, alto sax section leader Justin Cook, tenor sax leader Giselle Aparacio, trumpet section leaders Josh Solomowitz and Anna Wertheim, mellophone section leader Matthew Rosenbauer, low brass section leader Matthew Beeby and Michael Stafford and front ensemble section leader Nina Flores.
Final State Championship Standings: 1. Kingston-85.60; 2. Copiague-84.30; 3. Huntington-83.15; 4. Sachem-81.30; 5. Auburn-78.80; 6. Walt Whitman-78.60; 7. Greece-77.40; 8. Horseheads-76.55; 9. Union-Endicott-75.25; 10. Garden City-75.05; 11. Rome Free Academy-73.10.
Early Band History
The Blue Devil band was organized in 1934 and was open to boys and girls in all four classes, according to the 1936 edition of The Huntingtonian, the high school yearbook. "Although newly organized, this group has worked very hard and with the cooperation of the student body, the band members have received blue and white uniforms. They gave a new feeling of school spirit to all of the occasions at which they appeared this year."
The 1936 yearbook is the first to picture the marching band dressed in traditional uniforms. The book notes the uniforms were the product of fellow students, most likely referring to a campaign by the General Organization to raise funds for their purchase or an outright grant of monies.
The first director was high school music teacher James C. Doty, who attended Oberlin College in Ohio. The 1936 drum major was Edwin Riggs. He is the first student listed in any yearbook as the drum major. Mr. Riggs, known as Eddie, was a member of the varsity basketball and track teams as a junior and senior, served as the Athletic Council president as a senior, was drama club stage manager for three years a member of the General Organization's Executive Council and on the Question Mark (student newspaper) staff.
"Under the able direction of Mr. Doty, the musical leader, our band is expected to further the musical of the Huntington High School in the future," states the 1936 Huntingtonian. Principal Robert L. Simpson helped spur the development of the band. He was a devoted lover of music. Mr. Simpson wrote school songs, sang them and played musical instruments. Few things were closer to his heart than the music program at the school and in the community.
James Cloyd Doty came to Huntington in 1924 and began his supervision of the music department. The 1935 high school yearbook was dedicated to him. The dedication, listed on the yearbook's second page extolled the teacher and music director: "Who through his devotion to music has helped many students to develop a love and appreciation of one of the fine arts. Who by his sympathetic understanding of young people has both earned and enjoyed the love and respect of all those privileged to have been his pupils."
That same 1935 yearbook depicts the band sitting on the stage at the old Huntington High School on Main Street (now Town Hall). Members were dressed in formal attire, with boys in jacket and tie. "Great progress was made this year by the band," reads the caption under the photo on page 44 of The Huntingtonian. "Money was available for new instruments and through careful spending Mr. Doty purchased several which have filled out the band in both appearance and sound. Besides playing at games the band performed at the Huntington Theater, at Woodbury Avenue School, as a concert given for its own benefit at the high school and participated in the Music Festival at Lindenhurst."
Since those early days, the Blue Devil marching band has continued to flourish and its alumni now number in the thousands.