Marching band season begins under new leadership

MT. PLEASANT — The sounds of Mt. Pleasant Community High School’s marching band begin to float along once again on the last bits of a summer breeze as band members come together for the traditional band camp under the leadership of their new band director, Brad Cook.

Cook comes to the Mt. Pleasant music program after directing Madrid Community School District’s fifth-12th grade bands for 16 years.

According to Cook, the decision to come to Mt. Pleasant stemmed from a conversation with his wife about where they would like to raise their children.

Currently they have a two-year-old boy and another baby on the way later this year.

While the reputation of the team-driven program played an important part in the Cook family’s decision to make Mt. Pleasant their home, Cook says the community also played a large role.

“It was also very telling that a lot of people who grew up here eventually found their way back to living here,” he said.

“Like Adam, Mr. Creager, is from here,” Cook said. “He grew up here. He went to school here, and he teaches here, and there are quite a few others like him. I thought that said a lot about the community and school district that this is where people want to come back to raise their own kids.”

“We just wanted to be a part of that,” he said.

In fact, thanks to an invitation from Middle School Band Director Adam Creager, Cook dove right into the community as he performed with the Community Band one week over the summer before their family even moved to the area at the end of June.

While they still work to unpack and make themselves fully at home, they look forward to further becoming part of the community as Cook builds relationships with his music program teammates and students.

Cook expressed a specific his excitement to become a part of the music program team with Mt. Pleasant Community School District.

“Coming from 5-12, I wanted to just be in charge of one part of the program and have co-workers to do this together with,” he said. “We liked the idea of a small town, and I liked the idea of being part of a team.

“When I saw that Jim [DePriest] was retiring, I knew how good this program was, and so this became our top target of where we wanted to be,” Cook said.

  Buy Photo

This week, Cook began to experience some of that teamwork that drew him to this program as he worked alongside Creager and Elementary Band Director Laura Westfall for band camp.

“I have relied a lot on Adam and Laura for how have things been done in the past, keep me on the right path, because we want things to feel familiar and comfortable to the kids,” Cook said. “They don't need lots of change and I don't need to force my way of doing things on them. They need to feel comfortable and like, this is the same place that they've always loved and been a part of.”

As Cook led band camp Tuesday morning, he saw the teamwork expanded into the way the students led one another.

  Buy Photo

There came a time for the students to practice the drum line cadence in which the other band members show off some dance moves while the drum line takes center stage.

“We want you to march in time, because Freshmen and underclassmen don’t know the breakdown,” Creager directed the upperclassmen. “Freshman, watch the upperclassmen.”

As the drums played, many upperclassmen took to the front of the group and faced their peers as they performed their choreography for the cadence.

  Buy Photo

“I told those freshmen that I very much feel like a freshman right alongside them,” Cook said. “I said, ‘I am learning so much of what you guys do just on the fly, which is exactly what we’re asking you, it’s to just trust these upperclassmen. Trust your directors and go with it, and you’re going to be fine. We’re going to take care of you.’”

“That’s very much how I feel right now,” he said. “I trust these upperclassmen to teach me a little bit of what they have done and how they do things.

While Cook says the MPCHS band is three times the size of the high school band he directed in Madrid, the work itself still feels normal.

“It's like it felt totally normal because at the end of the day, high school kids are high school kids and high school musicians, high school band kids are high school band kids,” he said. “They’re kind of the same everywhere.”

Cook admires all the work DePriest did in this music program, and acknowledges just how much he knows the former director loved his students.

“I think it'd be hard for us to say that will care about the program and these kids more than Mr. DePriest, but I can honestly say that I will care about them just as much,” Cook said. “I care about their success. I care about them as people first and foremost.”

“I think something, if you talk to my former students, that they would all say that Mr. Cook cares far more about the kind of people we are than how many right notes or wrong notes we play, and that’s very true, and that’s something I think these kids will learn about me as well,” Cook said.

“I very much respect this program and what it’s meant to the community and the success that they’ve had, and I’m just looking forward to being a part of it,” he said.

As Cook integrates into the music program, he aptly chose to focus on a theme of unity for this year’s marching band show.

“They many band students acting as one is much more powerful and can have much more impact than you all acting as individuals, which is the whole idea of marching band,” he explained.

Music will include “One,” by Three Dog Night, “All by Myself,” by Eric Carmen, and “Butterflies and Hurricanes,” by Muse.

“The first two songs are all setting the stage of it’s very lonely being by yourself and isn’t it better to be part of a group that’s working together towards one common goal?” Cook said. “The third song … ties it all beautifully together.”

The band will begin performances with the Salem Old Settlers parade at the end of August followed by the Harvest Day Parade and performances at Old Threshers.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com