School is just around the corner and just as football practice is here, so are high school band camps.
This week at Northrop High School,the marching band, also known as the Big Orange Pride, is practicing.
Chris Kaflik, a Ball State graduate, is the new director of bands. He worked with the Blue Star Drum and Bugle Corps over the summer and came from off the road to do the Northrop camp.
“I'll be going back out to be with the Blue Stars at Nationals,” Kaflik said.
Kaflik is not unfamiliar with Indiana high school marching bands; he is from Carmel and marched with the Carmel band in high school.
Band members were learning the mechanics of a new marching formation on Friday, as instruments were set off to the side as students went through patterns over and over as Kaflik called directions from the two-story tower in the parking lot.
From the tower, the director has a bird's-eye view of what the pattern looks like. Assistants on the ground work with individuals when they get off-step, or will point out the correct way to position shoulders or point their toes.
Kaflik, with a quick apology for not yet knowing all the names, singles out individuals by what they are wearing and explains where they went wrong and how to correct it. Water breaks were given every 30 minutes.
The camp will continue through next Friday.
