According to Georgia High School Association rules and regulations, teams are given 20 minutes for a halftime break. If anyone is out on the field when the clock hits zero - band members included - the home team is penalized.
So, as most high schools do, Marietta's band was set to play second after Hillgrove's band, so that they would be sure to clear the field in time to avoid penalizing their own football team.
Unable to quickly navigate the ins and outs of Marietta's historic Northcutt Stadium, which has no track around the field and cramped spaces, Hillgrove's band was late getting onto the field when Friday night's halftime began. Hillgrove Principal Robert Shaw said the band cut its usual six-set performance to three sets, but Marietta band parent Janis LeMieux said that was not enough.
"The director did not have his band move the sideline instruments and equipment to the field in a timely manner and did not move the band and guard from behind the stadium until all players on both football teams had exited the walkway and were well on their way to the locker rooms - eating up as much as five minutes on the half-time clock," LeMieux said in a letter to the Journal. "Once it had performed, the Hillgrove band moved to the sidelines where they blocked MHS's ability to move its pit equipment into place. The marching members of MHS band formed and began playing with approximately 5 minutes remaining on the half-time clock. ...The drum major cut the performance at the end of the first set and, in order to avoid a penalty to our football team, the band began leaving the field and removing the pit equipment and were able to clear the field with 10 seconds remaining. MHS band was able to perform for only about 3 minutes!"
Marietta Principal Leigh Colburn said she was highly upset that MHS students had to work so hard because of "someone else's poor planning."
"But there were extenuating circumstances," she said. "Two Hillgrove band students had medical issues right before halftime and left in ambulances. They underestimated the logistical issues of Northcutt Stadium. Their band staff didn't preview the site, and I don't think Hillgrove has ever played at Northcutt before. He wasn't paying attention to how much time he had,"
Colburn added that the school's band only gets to perform at three home games, but that by Saturday she had received a written apology from Shaw, "indicating they meant no disrespect and were very sorry. I think they sincerely regret what happened."
Indeed, Shaw said the mishap was not intentional or done with any sort of malice.
"We just messed up," he said. "We'd never played there before and our band had never played there before, and we simply had issues with the logistics of getting that many kids in and around the stadium. I think what happened was we just got out there later than we hoped, then by the time the kids got out there, both of the band directors realized we were in trouble and cut the show in half, realizing the time had gotten away from us. I hate it. It's neat we're a AAAAA school now, we'll be playing Marietta in years to come and want there to be no bad feelings. We think very highly of Marietta and we work hard to have Hillgrove be represented as respecting others. I've apologized to their band directors and Mrs. Colburn. We just need to do better."
Colburn said she is considering a policy that band directors new to Northcutt must preview the site before they will be allowed to take the field at halftime. The Blue Devils' game against McEachern this Friday will be aired live on Comcast Cable channel 248 or Charter channel 127 at 7:30 p.m. as part the WSB-TV SportsZone Friday.
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Too bad Marietta had to pout about not getting to put on more of a show. Get over it -- it was an accident.
And if you can't perform that many shows at *home* then take in some of the other events available to Cobb County bands. There are so many of them!
Proud of your band and how much work they do? Then go out and perform more!! Hillgrove does that and does it with class and pride.
Go Hawks!
I agree with all that have concern for the injured students. Those students are our kids and wouldn’t you want people to be concerned if it were your KID?! Take a knee and shut up, that is the appropriate thing to do.
As for the parent of the MHS student that started all this commotion – How’s that 15 minutes of fame working out for you now? HA
Lastly, MHS SUPPORTER-Marietta High School has never been a gracious host….I attended the school in the 90’s and my siblings in the 80’s. Its students as well as the parents of those students act pompous and aragent. Always have and always will. If you knew anything at all you would not have said that they are “gracious”. It’s not in their vocabulary, I have lived in Marietta for 35 years and graciousness isn’t something that they excel at and I’m a thankful reformed MHS graduate!
Hillgrove could not take the field.
There was an injury on the field.
So..........
Everyone should stop blaming Hillgrove.
Everyone should stop blaming Marietta.
It was simply a bad situation with a bad outcome.
The real blame is for the Marietta *adults* who whined about something over which no one had any control. I truly don't believe that had the situation been reversed and Marietta had done this on Hillgrove's turf the HG boosters would have whined the way MHS is doing.
Deal with it like adults and move on.
Show some class already.
I do agree with ONE thing you said, though:
Enough IS enough.
Ok, IF.......you are really a HG parent...Why does it have to be a competition? Both bands work hard and performed well to bring pride to their organizations. You, however, are an idiot.
Pretty obvious you're not an HG parent
(nice try though)
:D
Are you not reading?
It has nothing to do with size.
THERE WAS A INJURY ON THE FIELD. (Duh)
Once the first half ends, the halftime clock starts. 20 minutes is 20 minutes and several of those minutes were taken to attend to an injury.
You DO remember the injury, right?
A kid was hurt, hurt badly enough to be taken off on a stretcher! That's something Ms. Lummox obviously cared nothing about; it's all about the fact that "Little Precious" didn't get to put on her whole show.
Grow up, Mom, and get your priorities in order. Most band booster associations would be horrified to have you as part of their organizations.
But it really seems like MHS might be lacking in the areas of sportsmanship, discipline, common courtesy and, yes, CLASS. It's time for you to have a serious inner look and a PR makeover, Marietta High School!
Amazed that #1 the band parent spoke out like this as a representative of the band AND USED HER NAME. Do you have any idea about the embarassment and shame you just brought to your band kid? That poor student has to walk around school every day now with the stigma of having mommy fight his/her battles. WOW!
Or maybe you're teaching your kid that there's no such thing as unavoidable circummstances and that life doesn't just "happen." Everything should be taken personally and if something seems unfair, you MUST be a victim. Protest!!! Demand satisfaction! THAT is the message you take to your kid? UGH.
Amazed, too, that the MHS principal is actually promoting the controversy. That is NOT leadership at all.
Pretty incredible.
I also know from watching it first-hand that BOTH football teams and a 155-member marching band were supposed to go through a space 3 feet wide during halftime, with the football players leaving the field and the band trying to get on it.
Maybe if Marietta High School would invest in something beyond an ancient middle school football field this wouldn't have ever been an issue.
When Sprayberry visited Hillgrove the week before, both bands had no problem playing their show.
Don't blame Hillgrove...blame that postage stamp entrance on the side of Marietta's stadium for this "story".
Also, Hillgrove went to the expense to put 155 kids on buses, drive an equipment truck, etc. to not march their show because Marietta has a sub-standard piece of crap stadium? Really?