Odem Bands Schedule – Week of 10/28/2024

I would like to begin this week by congratulating the members of The Spirit of OHS on an outstanding UIL Area Marching contest performance yesterday! The students gave it their all through months of practice and should be proud of their accomplishments, no matter the result! We also want to give you all, as the parents and community, our absolute gratitude for coming along with us to our performances! Thank you so very much for your amazing support!

While UIL contests are at a close for us, we do still have two more performances coming up, along with the final two regular season games at which we will perform our show! This week will be one of the busiest of the season for us, so we ask that parents and students pay special attention to the next two weeks’ schedule! This week, we have two major events: Homecoming and Hosting the 2A UIL Area E Marching Contest. Our students will perform in Exhibition on Saturday, as we are still also preparing for next week’s Bands of America Super-Regional at the Alamodome. I am going to discuss each event in order here.

Homecoming Events:

Thursday – Homecoming Parade/Burning of the ‘O’

Students must be at the Band Hall by 6 pm for this event. Students are highly encouraged to come IN COSTUME for the parade! It will be at night, so glowsticks/lights are also appropriate. The parade begins at 7 p.m., and Burning of the ‘O’ will happen immediately after. We’ll likely conclude events and have students ready for pick-up at about 8:30 p.m. We need costumes to be appropriate for a school event. Students must play and march, so please ensure no masks or costumes prevent that. Skirts/dresses should not be outside the school dress code, and tops should not be low cut/strapless. This is a public event, and we want to ensure we don’t have community concerns!

Friday – Homecoming Pep Rally/Game

We will have a Pep Rally at 12:15 p.m. on Friday before an early release at 1:00 p.m. Students must return to the HS for the game at 5:30 p.m. Please note that due to the expense of uniforms, Homecoming Mums may not be worn with their uniforms.

Host UIL 2A Area Marching Contest

Saturday, we will host the 2A Area Marching Contest. Leadership team members must be at the school by 8:30 a.m. to help block off parking lots, post signs, put up tents, etc. We need all other students to be at the school, along with parent volunteers, by 10:30 a.m. We’ll have a brief meeting at that time, then lunch at 11. We anticipate bands beginning to arrive about 11-11:30 a.m. The first band will perform at 1:30 p.m., and The Spirit of OHS will perform in an exhibition performance after the last band at 4:30 p.m. Due to the number of bands who qualified, there is a 7 Band Finals Round in the evening. We must reset everything for the first band to warm up at 6:45 p.m. The results will be given during a Full Band Retreat at 9:45 p.m. We hope to complete the cleanup and send everyone home by 11:00 p.m. 

Please note this is a mandatory day for all of our students!

We still need quite a few adult volunteers, please sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/2uy9795x

Bands of America – 11/8 and 11/9

The following week, we will compete at the Bands of America Super-Regional Competition at the Alamo Dome on Friday, November 8th. We perform at 11:30 a.m. for the contest. For anyone who wishes to purchase tickets for the event, that information is here: https://marching.musicforall.org/event/san-antonio-super-regional-2024/. After we perform, we will feed the students lunch and then head to Santa Rosa for the final regular season game for the Owls. We’ll come home that evening, hopefully by 12:30 a.m. We are taking charter buses for this trip, hoping to travel faster and get home earlier. 

The next morning, on Saturday, we’ll need students at the Band Hall by 8 a.m. to travel up to San Antonio for the second day. Students will have lunch on their own in the Rivercenter Mall before we walk to the Alamodome to watch the final block of preliminary contests and awards and then eat dinner at Hard Rock Café. We will then return to the Alamodome to watch finals that night. This is a major competition with over 70 bands signed up to participate, and traditionally has been a great experience for our students! Again, this is a mandatory event for both days; please contact me if you have any questions. 

For tickets, if you want to hang out with us at Finals that second night, it would be advisable to consider that in which tickets you purchase. They offer a few options of sessions on those or a combo ticket. 

This Week’s Schedule

Day:Event:
Monday:Outside Marching Rehearsal: 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Tuesday:No Rehearsal
Wednesday:Outside Marching Rehearsal: 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Thursday:Homecoming Parade/Burning of the ‘O’:Students at Band Hall by 6:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m. Parade Begins
Burning of the ‘O’ to follow
Friday:Homecoming5:30 p.m. Students at Band Hall
7:30 p.m. Game Begins
~10:15 p.m. Game Ends and students picked up
Saturday:2A UIL Area Marching Contest HostLeadership Students at School – 8:30 a.m.
All other students and Volunteers – 10:30 a.m. 
1:30 p.m. First Band Performs 
4:45 p.m. Spirit of OHS in Exhibition Performance  
7:30 p.m. First Finalist Band Performs  
9:45 p.m. Awards    
11:00 p.m. Cleanup finished

Upcoming Events:

Day:Event:Time:
Thursday:Homecoming Parade/Burning of the ‘O’ 
Friday:Odem vs. Banquete (Homecoming) 
Saturday:UIL 2A Area Contest Host  
November 8th:Bands of America Super Regional Competition (Alamodome – San Antonio)Odem vs. Santa Rosa (Santa Rosa) 
November 9th:Day 2 Bands of America Super Regional Competition (Alamodome – San Antonio) 
November 11th:Veteran’s Day Ceremony 9:30 a.m. 
December 3rd:JH All-Region Auditions (Tuloso-Midway) 
December 7th:HS All-Region Auditions (H.M. King) 
December 10th:Odem JH Winter Concert 
December 12th:Odem HS Winter Concert 
December 13th-14thAll-Region Clinic/Concert (TAMUK) 

Thank you for your help and support of these amazing students! Please contact us if you have any questions!