Bowled over

Mike and Lisa Peters have reached the end of the rainbow.

The pot of gold is a treasure trove of memories accumulated over 22 years of working with southwest Iowa’s finest high school musicians on winter holiday bowl game trips.

“It’s been so much fun. But, going to 10 bowl games on Christmas break and watching over 200 teenagers each time, it’s time for new young teachers and their expertise,” said Lisa Peters, special education teacher in Creston and director of the Southwest Iowa Honor Marching Band’s color guard for its recent trip to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego, California.

Her husband, Mike, has been band director in Creston since 1995, the year before his first bowl trip with the southwest Iowa band to the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona. He was head director of the honor band for its trip to Atlanta, Georgia in 2013 for the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

This year, he was a drumline director for the band under head director Jarrod O’Donnell of Atlantic High School. Mike and Lisa’s son, Tyler, a senior at Creston Community High School, was head drum major after qualifying for the band as a trumpet player. His older sister, Ashley, qualified for the honor band as a member of the color guard and also became a drum major.

With their youngest child graduating this year and other family matters to attend to during holiday breaks, the Peters duo — with the most tenure of any current director involved in the honor band — felt the timing was perfect to step aside.

“I have nothing against it and I’ll still help the kids get ready for it,” Mike Peters said. “I just won’t go along as an instructor anymore. I just don’t have the stamina to go on the trips anymore. There are young (band) directors who are chomping at the bit to be a part of this. At some point you have to step back and say that’s enough.”

Origin

The Southwest Iowa Honor Band began as an idea by Dan Frazier, English teacher at Lewis Central Middle School, who was watching the 1984 Rose Bowl parade at the home of his father, Harlan superintendent Orville Frazier. A Los Angeles high school honor band was shown performing in the parade.

Orville Frazier approached Harlan’s band director at the time, Lee Nelson, about the idea of forming a southwest Iowa honor band to perform in bowl parades.

A trip to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, was proposed because it was closer than most bowl games. A 235-member band took buses to Dallas and performed at the Dec. 30, 1984, Cotton Bowl parade.

Larry Peppers, retired Creston school administrator, was an assistant director of the honor band for its trip to the Cotton Bowl in 1987 while he was band director at Nishna Valley High School.

Director of the fourth edition of the Southwest Iowa Honor Marching Band in the 1991 Cotton Bowl was Kurt Schwark, then band director at Creston High School.

The band performs every other year, because of the logistics and time required to audition, select and plan for the trips, not to mention the expense. (This year, students raised $1,800 each and had additional expenses on the trip.)

Eventually, other bowls were selected for the honor band’s trips because the Cotton Bowl lost its parade sponsorship and discontinued its parade.

In his 22 years of service to the band, Mike has been to the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Florida; Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta; Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida; Holiday Bowl in San Diego; and several times to the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix.

This year, Jarrod O’Donnell of Atlantic was the head director of the 191-member honor band that included 14 members from Creston. Other area schools represented this year were East Union, Murray, Southwest Valley and Bedford.

Top honors

The band won Class AAA in the Holiday Bowl parade on Dec. 27 by sweeping all of the categories — best band, drum majors, brass, woodwinds, percussion and color guard.

The band also performed with several other high schools at halftime of the Holiday Bowl game in a mass band of 1,400 members. The performance included a 400-member dance team team, fireworks and recorded music accompaniment piped through the stadium PA speakers. One four-hour rehearsal was held the day before at a local high school for that six-minute show after performances by marching bands from the bowl’s participating schools, Minnesota and Washington State.

(Minnesota won the game, 17-12.)

“They have a staff that runs the halftime show and we (directors) are not involved in that,” Mike said. “It was kind of a hot mess for awhile at rehearsal, but it looked and sounded really good by the time they presented it at halftime.”

Tyler said he enjoyed serving as drum major along the 1-mile parade route in San Diego, although his arms got heavy holding them up high for everyone to see his directing while marching backwards for 20 minutes.

“It was very exciting meeting everyone from all the different bands,” Tyler said. “But I could tell at rehearsal the day before that I was not going to have that good of a time during the parade. We’ve been out of marching band season for a couple of months, so we’re not really prepared to march in something like that.”

Summer camp

Students audition for the band in May. A week-long camp is held in early August in Atlantic. Each day, awards are given for outstanding performers and this year’s honorees included Brittany Linch of Creston on trumpet, Olivia Hartman of Creston in guard, Anna Collins of East Union on clarinet, Clayton Davis of Creston on tuba/baritone saxophone and Jake Hitz of Creston in drumline.

“These kids are all talented,” Mike said. “But we’re working so hard in a short amount of time to prepare, that we like to honor those who are doing the best to set an example. Then, the following Wednesday, we always march in the Iowa State Fair parade.”

Mike likens it to the Iowa Shrine Bowl, a high school football all-star game drawing players from across the state. Coaches have a week to prepare players from various high school systems to prepare for a game.

“One year we got rained out of the Iowa State Fair parade,” Mike said. “Imagine having a week to prepare for a game, and then not being allowed to scrimmage. That’s what it was like for us to go down and march in the bowl parade that year. Then for the halftime show, these kids have two hours to rehearse before performing in front of 70,000 people the next day. It’s not easy.”

Rieman Music of Creston has long been a sponsor for the holiday bowl trips, contributing a memory book for each band member. Over the years, the trips have included more tourist activities to provide the students cultural opportunities besides the demands of performing. This year’s itinerary (see related story) included stops at the USS Midway, Mission Beach, Sea World and a bus trip to Los Angeles to see Universal Studios, Griffith Observatory and the famous Hollywood sign.

Special memories

While on the field at various bowls over the years, Mike said he’s found himself standing next to Heisman Trophy winners Tony Dorsett and Ricky Williams, pro football stars Warren Sapp and Kurt Warner, and Neil Peart, drummer for the rock band Rush. This year, Tyler took a “selfie” picture with Larry Culpepper, who appears in Dr. Pepper television advertisements.

“You have cool experiences on these trips and the kids are great,” Mike said. “It’s always fun to hear them tell you what the highlight of the trip was from their perspective.”

Lisa said returning home from the final bowl trip was bittersweet, as well. She’ll enjoy not having the preparations conflict with her own CCHS winter guard’s season, but she’s had unforgettable experiences.

“Mike and I have both had a great time doing this,” she said. “It’s been wonderful. But, it’s time for us to let someone else take over and have those wonderful experiences.”

— — — — —

Members of the 2016 Southwest Iowa Honor Marching Band from area schools and travel itinerary in Southern California for the 2016 Holiday Bowl:

Staff

Low brass — Simon McCoy, Murray.

Drumline — Mike Peters, Creston.

Guard — Lisa Peters, Creston.

Administrative board — Mike Peters, Creston, past director.

Band members

Color guard — Olivia Hartman, Creston; David Qualseth, Creston; Abby Higgins, Bedford; Maya Struhar, Creston, Hannah O'Dell, Bedford; Jennifer Johnson, Bedford.

Clarinets — Anna Collins, East Union; Mackenzie Keller, Murray.

Alto saxophones — Patrick Normandeau, Creston; Cassandra Batten, Creston; Kylie Shields, Murray.

Trumpets — Brittany Linch, Creston; Alyssa Martin, Murray.

Horns — Oakley Goodvin, Southwest Valley.

Drum major — Tyler Peters, Creston.

Trombones — Gabe Frakes, Creston.

Tubas — Clayton Davis, Creston.

Snare drum — Bailey Hopkins, Creston; Tessa Powers, Creston.

Quints — Jake Hitz, Creston; Ben Irr, Creston.

Bass drum — Whitney Henry, Bedford.

Cymbals — Bradley Johnson, Bedford.

Mallets — Dylan Linch, Creston.

Itinerary

Monday, Dec. 26 — Depart Eppley Airfield in Omaha for arrival at LAX airport in Los Angeles; parade practice at Qualcomm Stadium; mass band rehearsal at Otay Ranch High School.

Tuesday Dec. 27 — Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl parade; Performance with mass high school band at halftime of Holiday Bowl, Minnesota vs. Washington State.

Wednesday, Dec. 28 — Tour USS Midway and museum before stops at Belmont Park and Mission Beach.

Thursday, Dec. 29 — Visit Balboa Park and Sea World before departing for Hollywood.

Friday, Dec. 30 — Tour Universal Studios and lunch at Hard Rock Cafe.

Saturday, Dec. 31 — Tour Griffith Observatory and Hollywood sign, lunch at Farmer's Market before departure from LAX.