AHS gets new band director

Airport High School’s new band director, Mr. Spitler, has now replaced Mr. Rooker. This took place on the second day of rookie camp on August 2. Mr. Rooker, who had worked at Airport High School for 10 years, will be missed by his former students. Rooker drove an hour a day to get to school and later was offered a job closer to where he lived which he accepted.

Mr. Rooker will be missed. He had gotten Airport High School trophies from competitions. Many students seemed to enjoy his class. Students would often say that the only reason they liked coming to school was because of band class. When they were in the band room nobody would ever be churlish, everyone one always be ecstatic.

With the new band director, Mr. Spitler, changes have been made in class and in football games. With these changes, this could affect the competition scores. Based on the marching bands scores the past two Saturdays, AHS marching band looks stable and if they try harder and fix their mistakes, then they could make it to state.

One of the AHS band members, Mark S., said, “ I think Mr. Spitler is a fun teacher and is very easy on us, [but] I think he should be a bit more strict. During practice when Rooker worked here, the band had little breaks during a two hour practice.”

“With Spitler, we have longer practices, which is good, but we take too many breaks,” said Kelby.

In the past five years, the AHS band has made it into state only once. It is hard for bands to make it into the statewide competition. Only sixteen bands can go into the Upper State but everyone goes to the Lower State. To prepare his students for said competitions, Mr. Rooker would make his band work three days a week after school and if the bands needed it, on Saturday.

The AHS marching band had a performance last Saturday at Laurens high school. They placed third in the 3a category with a score of 66. They then went to St James high school and placed first in the 2a category with a score of 86. The next competition is going to be at Boiling Springs this Saturday.