Edmond Santa Fe Gets Band Back Together As Practice Resumes

Band practice is back at Edmond Santa Fe High School, but with quite a few changes this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assistant band director, Andy Heitz, said the school is taking all necessary precautions to ensure students safety while they practice.

Heitz said kids are so thrilled to be back, "I could just see their eyes smiling that they were finally getting to play again."

High school senior and band member, Emma Stockman, said Heitz is right – she really looks forward to band.

“It’s a good thing to have something consistent in life especially when everything seems kind of rocky,” Stockman said.

However, band looks and feels a little differently under strict COVID-19 precautions after a completed aerosol study.

"We kind of designed our show a little differently to not have kids standing so closely together,” Heitz said.

Here are the rules:

1. Keep your mask on at all times when your not playing your instrument
2. Stay 8 feet apart
3. Take temperature checks
4. Complete a tracking questionnaire
5. Spray and sanitize your hands.

"Heitz said “we don't ever use the same band room twice."

High school band students haven't played inside at all this year and most likely won't until November. But smaller middle schools will stagger band room usage, fog the rooms and use the air filters.

"We normally go to four marching contests in a season, three of those got cancelled,” Heitz said.

But Stockman says it hasn't changed the band mates' morale, "everyone's still as driven as if we did."

Musicians are also finding new motivation to play during football games- with no fans.

"The best part of being a musician is having a audience to play for but even if you take away that audience they still enjoy playing a music with each other,” Heitz said.

Students will be required to be staggered apart from sitting near each other at the games.

“We want to stay very far apart from each other but we also want to be here to support our football team,” Heitz said.