Springs Valley Community High School

On Saturday, the Blackhawk Brigade will load up and head out to its biggest competition of the season so far: the ISSMA Open Class Semi-State. When the Blackhawks arrive at Franklin Community High School for the competition, they’ll be riding the momentum they’ve built over the course of the season but particularly two weeks ago when they competed at regional. At the Evansville Central Regional, they earned themselves a gold rating with distinction in visual and effect with a strong performance. “That was one of their better performances,” Springs Valley band director Summer Sneed-Mueller said. “They really started kicking into gear. It feels like they’re in performance mode now.” Leading the band was a core of seniors who have been not only an integral part of the Brigade’s success this season, but in helping Sneed-Mueller navigate her first year at Springs Valley as well. Keenan Crowder, Jack Dalton, Ella Gadau, Leo Hale, Cole Hall, Kaylee Hall, Cam Hughes, Katie Lindsey, Logan McWilliams, Isabelle Peterson, and Bostyn Rowlett have all played an important role in this season’s successes and the Brigade will continue to lean on them as the season progresses. “They’ve really helped me settle in. It’s been this back and forth of how things have been , but it’s up to you if you want to take it or leave it. They’ve been really helpful in letting me know what they usually do at state, what they usually do at semi-state,” Sneed-Mueller said. “Lots of them are very strong leaders and sometimes when you get too many leaders in one room it can get a little top-heavy, but they’ve learned to cool it off, take a step up when they need to and take a step back when they need to. They’ve been really good.” Rowlett, particularly, has played a key facet in the Blackhawk Brigade’s success. As the band’s drum major she not only directs all facets of the performance, she’s also a de facto liaison between the band and Sneed-Mueller. She’s thrived in that role, providing a trustworthy leader that the first-year director can rely on. “She takes criticism very well. I’m always telling her what’s working and what isn’t and what we have to change and try to do instead,” Sneed-Mueller said. “She’s a really good leader. She helps get them back into focus, I can trust her to warm them up and get them out to the field on time, and that’s what you really need from a drum major. You need someone who’s going to be your right-hand person, helping you do all the things that you need to do without you having to do it all yourself.” Ahead of semi-state, the band is continuing to add new things to its performance, which has been constantly evolving over the course of the season. Each week the Brigade has added something new, even if it wasn’t visible, and will continue to do so while also trying to sharpen up everything it’s been doing so far. “We’ve added some new stuff into the show, so we’re getting comfortable with that and then we’re revisiting the stuff we learned back in July, back at the very beginning of school, and trying to get that back to its peak performance,” Sneed-Mueller said. “We’re just rounding everything out and making it seem like we’ve been doing all of this the whole season.” If all goes to plan on Saturday, the Brigade will be headed back to the state finals yet again. After dozens of appearances at the event over the years and a few championships to boot, it’s become expected of them to reach that stage. They take that in stride though and if they can block out everything else and perform their best, they’ll be just fine. “It’s been a big thing to hear about how we’ve gone to the state finals this many times, so obviously it’s a huge goal,” Sneed-Mueller said. “I think they’re meeting that goal very well here at home, we just have to kick it into gear where we’re out on the road. When we hear another band that sounds really good, we don’t need to compare ourselves to them. We just need to do our own personal best and get better every single time.”