Marching to a safe beat: Sumter’s high school bands follow guidelines to perform in pandemic

After high school football players were given the thumbs up to play this season, three Sumter high school band directors collaborated to create a proposal that allowed their students to march on amid the pandemic as well.

"Things are a lot different, and of course, we have a full COVID-19 plan that has been devised and submitted to the district office," said Troy Cato, band director at Sumter High School. "It was approved, and we're trying our best every way possible to abide by that plan."

Cato, along with Lakewood High School Band Director Ray Francis and Crestwood High School Band Director Whitney Washington, didn't want to see their students lose something they were passionate about to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Many of the kids would have been devastated," Cato said. "Some of the seniors, this is their last hoorah. Without band, many of them, education and academics are certainly No. 1, but band is sometimes the reason why some of the kids come to school every day with a positive attitude and working hard."

So, the three band directors unified to create a new sense of normalcy for their marching bands rather than dropping the program.

Earlier in the school year, they sent the proposal to the Sumter School District for the 2020-21 Marching Band schedule with COVID-19 guidelines in place for both band directors and students to follow.

For example, Cato said he created a march formation that follows the 6 feet apart guidelines enforced by the CDC and DHEC.

"We just call it a band block, where the kids are 6 feet apart left to right and front to back," Cato said. "The kids have been very willing to adapt to staying in their little area without sharing instruments, touching someone else's instrument."

They've also come up with other solutions to keep the safety of students, staff and volunteers a priority of the program.

Cato recently ordered several bell covers for the brass instrument team. He said it wasn't a requirement in the proposal, but it was better to go above and beyond when it came to the safety of his students.

When the brass ensemble plays, the bell covers will create a safety guard without disrupting the sound of the instruments. This protects others from the air being blown out from the player.Cato also plans to have the brass group play away from one another in formation so that no one is having air blown toward another person.

"That's the only way that band can work, especially in this situation. Everyone has their own responsibility and is expected to abide by that and held accountable," Cato said. "That's the only way it'll really work, if we all work together to make this work. We share with the band often how important everyone doing their part is to an organization like it is to a band program."

Cato said the responsibilities are nothing new to his students, though. Even before COVID-19, the students had responsibilities to care for their instruments and sanitize them periodically. The only difference is that they have to be more distant than usual with their classmates.

"We have so many kids, especially here at Sumter High, band is really their thing. They love band. They invested their time and their energy. Band is like a family," Cato said. "At the end of the day, when it's all said and done, it's for the kids."

Lori Smith, K-12 fine arts coordinator for Sumter School District, also took part in creating the marching band proposal and stood by the three band directors who fought for their students.

"They wanted their kids," Smith said. "We don't want to lose any more time than we're going to lose."

Seeing the marching bands continue to play amid the pandemic, Smith made it a goal to create approvable proposals for fine arts organizations across the school district so that they, too, can create a new normalcy. She even said a dance class proposal was approved recently.

"We are doing a lot of music appreciation at that level in those classes," Smith said. "We're working on it."