Racing to Prepare

By: Kailey Buecker

This year, the Nease Marching Band received a surprise invitation to come and perform at the Daytona 500 pre-show, February 19th. The Daytona 500 is a 500-mile NASCAR Cup Series season-opener that is annually held at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nease’s Marching Band Director, Mr. Oyster, commented this, “Growing up a NASCAR fan myself, I’ve known about the level of prestige that the Daytona 500 has and how large of an event it is. When I was given this opportunity for the band to perform, I had to ensure I’d heard him correctly!” Mr. Oyster also stated that he was “over the moon with excitement.” Lia De-Jong, a flute in the band, shared her perspective,” I think that being invited to perform at the event is an incredible opportunity.”

Leading Up to the Invitation

The Nease Marching Band has endured many hardships over the past few years. Including COVID-19, changing of directors, and a series of other factors. Mr. Oyster quips that he couldn’t be prouder of his students. Additionally, Mr. Oyster shared that “This past season (Fall 2022), the band participated in competitions at the regional and state level, regularly placing in the top percentile and receiving awards for ‘Best in Class’ in Music Performance, Percussion, Visual Performance, General Effect, and Color Guard!” The Nease Marching Band has been moving their way up both regionally and state-wide this following year. Even receiving a rating of “Superior” at the Florida Bandmaster’s Association Marching Band Music Performance Assessment, the highest mark a band can receive.  

Preparations for Daytona 500

The Nease Marching Band had prepared for the Daytona 500 through a series of after school rehearsals. At these after school rehearsals, they practiced the music they had prepared for the event. This year’s music includes a selection from this past season’s halftime show and several new selections that are geared toward the NASCAR type of environment. De-Jong comments, “I have been practicing as much as I can in order to perform my best.” The Marching Band had put their all into practicing for the performance at Daytona 500.

The Marching Band have put a lot of work into improving their skills this school year. As the invitation was unplanned, there were many additional costs that the Nease Marching Band were unprepared for. One way a person was able to support the Nease Marching Band is through donation. The Nease Band Boosters had set up a GoFundMe to help raise funds for the trip. The Marching Band also had a fundraiser set up through NASCAR, for people who had intended to attend the race.

Post Daytona 500 Performance

The Nease Marching Band worked hard for weeks in order to prepare and the performance paid off! The band did amazingly, as reported by their teacher, Mr. Oyster. He even said that “The representatives of NASCAR were blown away by our performance, so that speaks for itself for how amazing they did.” These Nease Panthers did a wonderful job on their performance!