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Post by marimba11 on Mar 8, 2021 15:55:48 GMT -6
I saw on FB dan morrison is leaving Reagan band... and the reagan saga continues
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Post by Subito Fortissimo on Mar 8, 2021 22:55:29 GMT -6
This has been rumored and anticipated for quite awhile. It will be interesting to see if they go with an internal or external hire but I imagine this position could get interest from some pretty big names.
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Post by thewho on Mar 10, 2021 13:08:36 GMT -6
Congratulations to Morrison for his time at Reagan. In the time he lead the band, Reagan was near the top of the marching world nearly every year and finally got the unanimous #1 spot with one of the greatest shows from this past decade in 2019. That's a worthy legacy on par with Mark Chambers's, the director at Ronald Reagan from 2002 to 2006.
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Post by turfday on Jun 21, 2021 15:18:35 GMT -6
So....who’s taking over? His leave was clearly planned to be after a big Grand Nationals finish but covid came in and messed up his plans. Very very very nervous for their program to have such an amazing director leaving after such a volatile year leading to nationals.
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Post by dbalash on Jun 21, 2021 15:54:49 GMT -6
So....who’s taking over? His leave was clearly planned to be after a big Grand Nationals finish but covid came in and messed up his plans. Very very very nervous for their program to have such an amazing director leaving after such a volatile year leading to nationals. Greg White: Director of Bands (Associate since 2011) Mason Daffinee: Assistant Director of Bands Katie Fehr: Assistant Director of Bands (new hire, comes from Richland) |
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Post by turfday on Jun 21, 2021 17:20:56 GMT -6
So....who’s taking over? His leave was clearly planned to be after a big Grand Nationals finish but covid came in and messed up his plans. Very very very nervous for their program to have such an amazing director leaving after such a volatile year leading to nationals. Greg White: Director of Bands (Associate since 2011) Mason Daffinee: Assistant Director of Bands Katie Fehr: Assistant Director of Bands (new hire, comes from Richland) It’s good they are promoting from within. Hiring someone from...Richland of all places is interesting. Especially for such a nationally acclaimed program. Richland doesn’t have much concert success and in recent years they missed Indianapolis super finals. Very weird choice. Worrying. |
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Post by yayband914 on Jun 21, 2021 17:36:40 GMT -6
Greg White: Director of Bands (Associate since 2011) Mason Daffinee: Assistant Director of Bands Katie Fehr: Assistant Director of Bands (new hire, comes from Richland) It’s good they are promoting from within. Hiring someone from...Richland of all places is interesting. Especially for such a nationally acclaimed program. Richland doesn’t have much concert success and in recent years they missed Indianapolis super finals. Very weird choice. Worrying. I’m sure they made what they thought — after much of it, I imagine — was the best choice for their program. Not every program can make finals and simply being from Texas isn’t a golden ticket to advance to any finals competition. The way you paused to emphasize Richland in a negative and disgusted/appalled manner, as if someone from there isn't "good enough" to transfer to an acclaimed program, just comes across like you’re tearing down one band program to compare it to another. 🤷🏼♂️ |
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Post by LeanderMomma on Jun 22, 2021 20:02:18 GMT -6
Greg White: Director of Bands (Associate since 2011) Mason Daffinee: Assistant Director of Bands Katie Fehr: Assistant Director of Bands (new hire, comes from Richland) It’s good they are promoting from within. Hiring someone from...Richland of all places is interesting. Especially for such a nationally acclaimed program. Richland doesn’t have much concert success and in recent years they missed Indianapolis super finals. Very weird choice. Worrying. 🤔 Trying to understand your point and also trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here before I read you the riot act about denigrating other bands. Hopefully I’ve misinterpreted your meaning. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2021 9:37:53 GMT -6
Greg White was 2006 graduate of Round Rock high school. I just found that out, cool.
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Post by marimba11 on Jun 23, 2021 9:51:49 GMT -6
I think in the band world it is hard to paint with a broad brush the worthiness of candidates (or educators)… for example going from a pretty good program to a GREAT program - like Richland to Reagan. There are so many factors for why Richland is at the current level of success I am sure - many of which are internal affairs we will never know. Same goes for the hiring process - we have no idea why they make the decisions they do.
But school districts must choose whoever applies. And then make the best decisions with that pool. Mason seemed to have issues with Green but still I don’t know all the details so it’s hard to make comments like you did without knowing the complex story.
I’m sure Reagan will be fine in the end, although bands almost always suffer some pains as they get new instructional staff - pretty consistent story year after year when that happens. And in the end most music educators love their jobs with a passion not seen in other subjects because it is so rewarding - so whether they come from a great big school or an average small school it is hard to know the exact contributions of the new hire at Reagan at Richland.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jun 23, 2021 10:12:59 GMT -6
Yes certainly many more factors go into the program than just the director. Back in the day, Bill Watson, who had directed the 1993 Grand National champion Spring, left Spring in the mid 1990s and went to Richland HS. Now some of the most successful years for Richland were indeed under Mr. Watson's direction but he still could not match the success he had had with Spring. I remember in the mid 1990s, Plymouth-Canton got a new director; David McGrath. He came to Plymouth from nearby Lakeland HS. Now don't get me wrong, Lakeland was quite good under his direction, but nowhere near the level of Plymouth. Plymouth of course had far more resources than Lakeland. Mr. McGrath ended up leading Plymouth to the 1999 Grand National title; something many thought would not happen again right after Glen Adsit left the program in 1993. And yes I know there are also many programs who really went down hill following the loss of a great director. So I guess my point is you never know how these things will play out. We will just have to watch and see what happens. I still hope this band comes away with a GN title at some point.
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Post by marimba11 on Jun 23, 2021 10:50:21 GMT -6
Yes certainly many more factors go into the program than just the director. Back in the day, Bill Watson, who had directed the 1993 Grand National champion Spring, left Spring in the mid 1990s and went to Richland HS. Now some of the most successful years for Richland were indeed under Mr. Watson's direction but he still could not match the success he had had with Spring. I remember in the mid 1990s, Plymouth-Canton got a new director; David McGrath. He came to Plymouth from nearby Lakeland HS. Now don't get me wrong, Lakeland was quite good under his direction, but nowhere near the level of Plymouth. Plymouth of course had far more resources than Lakeland. Mr. McGrath ended up leading Plymouth to the 1999 Grand National title; something many thought would not happen again right after Glen Adsit left the program in 1993. And yes I know there are also many programs who really went down hill following the loss of a great director. So I guess my point is you never know how these things will play out. We will just have to watch and see what happens. I still hope this band comes away with a GN title at some point. Yup! Excellent post |
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Post by Samuel Culper on Jun 23, 2021 11:45:12 GMT -6
Yes certainly many more factors go into the program than just the director. Back in the day, Bill Watson, who had directed the 1993 Grand National champion Spring, left Spring in the mid 1990s and went to Richland HS. Now some of the most successful years for Richland were indeed under Mr. Watson's direction but he still could not match the success he had had with Spring. I remember in the mid 1990s, Plymouth-Canton got a new director; David McGrath. He came to Plymouth from nearby Lakeland HS. Now don't get me wrong, Lakeland was quite good under his direction, but nowhere near the level of Plymouth. Plymouth of course had far more resources than Lakeland. Mr. McGrath ended up leading Plymouth to the 1999 Grand National title; something many thought would not happen again right after Glen Adsit left the program in 1993. And yes I know there are also many programs who really went down hill following the loss of a great director. So I guess my point is you never know how these things will play out. We will just have to watch and see what happens. I still hope this band comes away with a GN title at some point. I was not aware that Watson went to Richland from Spring. I'm curious about his staff at Richland because Bryan Christian, the current head director at Vista Ridge, was at Richland somewhere near that same period. Did Christian serve under Watson? He was at Richland before opening up Stony Point in Round Rock ISD, and then opening Vista Ridge. |
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Post by TWHSPercDad on Jun 23, 2021 13:24:35 GMT -6
Yes, Bryan Christian was Bill Watson’s assistant when Bill arrived in Richland.
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Post by Uncle Baby Billy on Jun 24, 2021 0:04:47 GMT -6
Leander, he is dead on. Turfday! You have a fine, well-crafted point. While past success or successes can be indicative of future performance, there are so many other factors at play, including budget & boosters, culture, feeders, and others. She may flop in this new role, but may succeed too. All that matters in a program is developing and maintaining culture.....much more than a silly trophy. If he can accomplish that and teach music - maintain the band's number or increase them - she will have done her job. Richland's situation is undoubtedly different than Reagan, but she'll no doubt have to bring something more to the table. I am unfamiliar with how much Reagan spends on outside help, but if they keep things the status-quo, it will be hard to completely mess up that situation unless the students can't be won over. After all, they are the ones who have to do the real work. It is an 'alarming' hire if only that Richland is not a national powerhouse. They are a good program though in a deep state and so this type of hire isn't completely out of left field. It’s good they are promoting from within. Hiring someone from...Richland of all places is interesting. Especially for such a nationally acclaimed program. Richland doesn’t have much concert success and in recent years they missed Indianapolis super finals. Very weird choice. Worrying. 🤔 Trying to understand your point and also trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here before I read you the riot act about denigrating other bands. Hopefully I’ve misinterpreted your meaning. |
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Post by hewhowaits on Jun 24, 2021 7:41:17 GMT -6
Leander, he is dead on. Turfday! You have a fine, well-crafted point. While past success or successes can be indicative of future performance, there are so many other factors at play, including budget & boosters, culture, feeders, and others. He may flop in this new role, but he may succeed too. All that matters in a program is developing and maintaining culture.....much more than a silly trophy. If he can accomplish that and teach music - maintain the band's number or increase them - he will have done his job. Richland's situation is undoubtedly different than Reagan, but he'll no doubt have to bring something more to the table. I am unfamiliar with how much Reagan spends on outside help, but if they keep things the status-quo, it will be hard to completely mess up that situation unless the students can't be won over. After all, they are the ones who have to do the real work. It is an 'alarming' hire if only that Richland is not a national powerhouse. They are a good program though in a deep state and so this type of hire isn't completely out of left field. Hiring the third or fourth director with 2-3 years' experience from a band who buys all of their drill, music arranging and staff would be far more worrisome. At least this guy presumably has 'CEO' level experience of running a program. You may want to check your "facts" here. You refer to the new director needing to bring more to the table as an outsider hired in and use the pronoun "he." The new director at Reagan, Greg White, is a promotion from within and has been at Reagan for a full decade. The director hired from Richland is not a "he" as I am sure we are all able to glean from Ms. Fehr's profile on the Reagan band page. |
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Post by Uncle Baby Billy on Jun 24, 2021 8:42:57 GMT -6
Whether it's a he or she doesn't really matter to me. I don't know either program well -other than Morrison's background- but some of the same issues apply. Can the students be won over? How will this impact the program with some changes at the top? Does this person possess CEO-level experience through their previous role(s)? Or as the poster's concern is.. will they burn the program to the ground?
Time will tell on all of those. A school with a massive staff who also farms out all of their actual work to contractors for the marching band program at least should have more cover than a program who has less room for error. I do not know what Reagan does but if there are more bodies, typically there is more cover so should have fewer concerns about someone's background or the school they come from.
Concert band is a different animal.
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Post by LeanderMomma on Jun 30, 2021 15:15:42 GMT -6
Leander, he is dead on. Turfday! You have a fine, well-crafted point. While past success or successes can be indicative of future performance, there are so many other factors at play, including budget & boosters, culture, feeders, and others. She may flop in this new role, but may succeed too. All that matters in a program is developing and maintaining culture.....much more than a silly trophy. If he can accomplish that and teach music - maintain the band's number or increase them - she will have done her job. Richland's situation is undoubtedly different than Reagan, but she'll no doubt have to bring something more to the table. I am unfamiliar with how much Reagan spends on outside help, but if they keep things the status-quo, it will be hard to completely mess up that situation unless the students can't be won over. After all, they are the ones who have to do the real work. It is an 'alarming' hire if only that Richland is not a national powerhouse. They are a good program though in a deep state and so this type of hire isn't completely out of left field. 🤔 Trying to understand your point and also trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here before I read you the riot act about denigrating other bands. Hopefully I’ve misinterpreted your meaning. 👀👀👀 |
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