On Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, band members from both Holdrum Middle School and George White Middle School joined Pascack Valley’s Panthers Band at the Valley’s football game against River Dell.
According to the PVHS band teacher Craig Yaremko, there were about 30 middle school students who came out to perform at the game. The collective band members played “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the beginning of the evening and pep songs in between quarters.
“It’s a challenge because [middle school students are] just getting started with the school year and suddenly they have to play with the high school band, and that can be intimidating,” Yaremko said. “If they were nervous, I don’t think they showed it very much; the energy was very positive… you could see them moving and smiling.”
According to Yaremko, it was an upbeat atmosphere. They played along with the Panthers Band and reacted to plays during the game.
George White and Holdrum students performed some songs they had practiced and some they’d never heard of before.
“We normally don’t set up music stands in the football bleachers, but we did this time,” Yaremko said. “It was just easier to have several people look at a music stand. Some students even tried playing songs they didn’t even prepare [for], which is really cool. It was really good for them to get a taste of what we do a lot of here [at Pascack Valley].”
PVHS junior and band member Maddy Djimopoulos talked about her experience that night.
“It was a lot of fun getting to see the next generation of high schoolers playing with the band,” Djimopoulos said. “ I’m looking forward to playing with them again next year.”
There are usually about 30-40 songs the Panthers Band prepares for games like this one.
“…but [30 or 40 songs] would be way too much [for the middle schoolers], so we sent the most basic and foundational songs, if you will, down to them in the middle of September,” Yaremko said. “Then, they had a couple of weeks to work, but [I think] it’s a challenge [to play all these songs].”
Yarenko also explained how much larger the band was with the addition of the middle school band members, “We were taking up that entire section of the bleachers with our band plus [those of] the two middle schools; there were 25-30 from Pascack Valley plus 30 from both middle schools. [We were] double the size!”
Yaremko explained that the inclusion of the middle school students, which had never been done before, added positivity and creativity to the football game. The students from George White and Holdrum hadn’t had the opportunity to play with the Panthers band in the past, so this is a new tradition.
“When I taught at Holdrum, we never had the invitation to come up [to PV],” Yaremko said. “That’s not good or bad; it was just one of those things that I’ve heard my other friends who teach high school band do, and this was a smashing success. I will definitely be bringing this back on a yearly basis!”
