Cameron Marching Dragons practice safety during summer camp

Cameron High School football fans will see a much different halftime show than they’re accustomed, but hear the same sound from one of the area’s premier high school music programs.

With a new band co-director Jacob Jennings, and under COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, the Cameron Dragon Marching Band kicked off its preseason camp under unprecedented circumstances Monday in preparation for the August 28 home opener against Northeast Kansas City.

“The way [it] was described is football will have limited attendance and for the duration of the game we will be allowed bleachers that we will be seated on to play during the game, as usual,” said second-year CHS Band Co-Director Clint Kubala. “It’s the pep tunes, the shorts and songs you recognize as we play. At halftime, we will come out on the field spaced out. We will have a formation but we will be sitting in, but playing our show music that we have.”

The change comes as marching bands across the country figure out the best way to play music while preventing the spread of COVID-19. Jennings said bands are susceptible because many of the instruments aerosolize the virus. With that in mind, Jennings and Kubala went through great lengths in planning the camp. This year, they met in groups according to their class and will kick camp into gear throughout the week in order to get in the maximum amount of teaching in a limited amount of time and under very stringent guidelines.

“No matter if you’re a first-year, second-year or event 30-year band director, it’s like you’re first year teaching all over again, but we’re going to learn how to do it,” Jennings said. “It’s scary. That’s the biggest thing I can say. We’re not only worried about the health and wellbeing of our students, but the staff and the families of the students. We want to make sure that if we’re going to teach them, no matter what we teach or how we teach, that it’s still going to be safe for them.”

In late July, Cameron Municipal Band Director and Cameron R-1 School District Board of Education Member Ann Goodwin-Clark announced the cancellation of this fall’s MarchFest, which typically draws more than 25 high school bands to downtown Cameron along with thousands of friends, family and other spectators. Goodwin-Clark, who previously served as CHS band co-director until 2019, said the Cameron Municipal Band had no intentions of restarting their concert season after one of its members contracted COVID-19 last month. With more than 100 members of the Marching Dragons, one student happy with the efforts of Kubala and Jennings was student Candy Gardner.

“It’s really sad, but I’m thankful for what I do get. I’m thankful we get some kind of band camp. I’m thankful we get to meet the new band director,” said Gardner, a senior on the color guard. “We still get to have fun with it. I’m very thankful we get to have some sort of a band camp without it being cancelled and I’m thankful we get to perform … There won’t be too much marching this year, which I’m really upset about, but as long as we’re on the field and performing I’ll be OK with it.”