We begin this week by giving a huge thank you to our community members and students who came together to help us host the 5^th Annual Owl Marching Invitational! This was a successful event with 14 competing bands, and more than 1000 students performing! We will host one other contest on October 31^stfor the UIL Area E 2A Contest with as much help needed then too! We’ll post more information and sign-ups for that in a week or two. We appreciate the amazing work and pride everyone put into making this weekend work!

This week, The Spirit of OHS attends our first contest as a competing band in Seguin, at Seguin HS. Students need to be at the Game Field to warm up by 6:30 am, and we will depart soon after. We will need parent help at the stadium to move props and equipment at 11:00 am before we go to our warm-up time, and then we’ll move toward our performance at 12:30 pm. The contest is a prelims/finals contest, with finalists announced at about 4 pm. If we advance to finals, that begins at 6:30 pm. Because planning is uncertain, we have a couple of contingency plans in mind if we don’t advance. If we do, we’ll stay until awards at 9:30 pm and get home a bit after midnight. 

Students should bring some spending money for the concession stand and other stops, as well as money for dinner. We will have lunch covered, and if we advance, we will take care of dinner so we can be set for that performance. Weather forecasts are uncertain, with rain this week/weekend. The most likely outcome at a contest with rain is that you delay until the weather breaks, and then you resume. We will plan on there being a contest no matter what at that point. The address for spectator parking is: 1382 E College St, Seguin, TX 78155. I will share a few more details about the contest later in the week, when they send out their final information.

Our rehearsal schedule will be a bit different this week, with the student day off tomorrow and the football Bye Week. Tomorrow, on Monday, we will begin showing the film and judges’ comments from yesterday’s contest at 6:00 pm. We’ll then rehearse until 9 pm. Thursday will be 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm as normal, and then Friday we will have a clinician in to work with the students from 4 pm to 6 pm before we load up everything for the next day. With rain in the forecast this week, every moment we can get outside will matter as we prepare for the rest of our season. If it is raining/storming outside, we move inside and continue to rehearse indoors in most cases. If we face extreme weather or rainfall and need to make an adjustment, we will send it out through Remind and the Owl Band Boosters Facebook group.

Fees and Online Payments

For HS students and 7^th/8^th Grade Students, we need their band fees turned in at this time. We accept checks or money orders only in the band halls (no cash, please), but we can also now accept online payments via Debit/Credit Card. Please see the information below about setting up your Presto Account if you wish to pay with Debit/Credit Card. We’re finding it’s a bit of a process to get everyone onto the system, but it works well once we have all the steps in place!

There is a video here with details on how to create accounts and use the system: https://support.presto-assistant.com/articles/getting-started-guide-students-and-parents/ You should have received a welcome email a couple of weeks ago. If you don’t see it in your email, please check your spam folder and have your student log in to their OEISD email account, as it may have gone there. You can also join via our group/organization code, odemowls (it’s at the bottom of the page after you set up your Parent account). You may have an issue if we used your email address to create the student account; if so, and you have a second email address, you should be able to join that way. 

If you have completed both of those steps and don’t see it, please email rashs@oeisd.org with your name, the student’s name, your relationship to the student, your email address, and the student’s grade. The login page is here: https://app.presto-assistant.com/ .

This Week’s Schedule

Monday:	HS Band Rehearsal (No School for Students)	6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Tuesday:	Band Hall Closed After School
Wednesday:	Band Hall Open until 4:15 pm
Thursday:	HS Band Evening Rehearsal	6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Friday:	Bye Week Rehearsal with Clinician	4:00 pm to 6:00 pm/Load Truck/Trailer (~6:30 pm)
Saturday:	Seguin Marching Festival 6:30 am: Students at Game Field for run-through 8:00 am: Depart  10:30 am: Arrive at Stadium 11:45 am: Warm-Up 12:30 am: Performance ~4:00 pm: Awards/Announcement of Finals Schedule after this TBD, Finals begin at 6:30 pm if we advance. If we don’t, we’ll most likely plan to travel into a mall in San Antonio and let students have time to eat at the food court and shop.

Upcoming Events:

Friday:	Afternoon Clinic/Pack Equipment for next Day
Saturday:	Seguin Marching Contest (Seguin)
October 9th:	Odem vs. Santa Rosa (Home)
October 10th:	Robstown Crossroads Marching Contest
October 16th:	Odem vs. Cotulla (Cotulla)
October 17th:	UIL Region Marching Contest
October 19th:	District Holiday: Rehearsal with clinician from 9 am to noon.
October 23rd:	Odem vs. Hebbronville (Home)
October 24th:	UIL Area 3A Marching Contest (Alice)
October 30th:	Odem vs. George West (Home – Senior Band Night)
October 31st:	Host UIL 2A Area Marching Contest
November 6th:	Depart Odem for Falfurrias Game. We will leave from Falfurrias to San Antonio for Overnight stay
November 7th:	Bands of America Super-Regional at the Alamodome (Tickets available now on Ticketmaster.com)
November 11th:	Veteran’s Day Ceremony
November 14th:	Junior High All-Region Auditions
December 5th:	High School All-Region Auditions
December 8th:	Odem JH Winter Concert (6:30 pm)
December 10th:	Odem HS Winter Concert (6:30 pm)
December 11-12th:	All-Region Clinic/Concert (TAMUK)

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