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Marching Southerners: JSU's #1 Recruiting Tool |
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By Buffy Smith JSU News Bureau Jacksonville, AL -- May 9, 2000 -- JSU band director Ken Bodiford, '88 graduate, is regarded as one of JSU's finest alumni. But he almost didn't come to school here. "I had already enrolled at UAB in pre-med when my band director took me to see the Southerners perform at one of their Thursday night rehearsals," Bodiford said. "They were amazing and I knew that I wanted to be a part of that. It literally changed my life. The next day I dropped out of my accelerated high school program at UAB and told my parents that I wanted to become a band director and that I was going to go to JSU." The Marching Southerners is, by far, one of JSU's most valuable recruiting tools. Whenever the band is not performing at a Gamecock football game, it's exhibiting at high school band festivals and competitions. "I teach an Intro to Music course," Bodiford said. "And I have students in there all the time who said that they had never heard of JSU until they saw the Southerners perform at a band competition." The most recent recruiting success was in November when the Southerners performed at the Bands of America Grand Nationals Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana. Bodiford said the BOA Grand Nationals is one of the toughest and best high school band competitions in the world. "They don't go out there and do your typical half time show," he said. "It's more complex and sophisticated." The Southerners was one of two college bands given the honor of performing at the national competition. They were asked to perform last year when the director of BOA caught their performance at one of the BOA regional competitions in Atlanta. "We performed a show that just brought the house down," Bodiford said. "The guy that's over BOA came up to me afterwards and said 'I've got to have that band for Grand Nationals!'." The Marching Southerners changed their show style this year in preparation for the Grand Nationals exhibition. Though they usually perform a Latin/Spanish style show, this year they decided to play classical music. Their list of tunes consisted of : Russian Christmas Music, Vespers, Dance Movements and Finale 1999. More than 65,000 people packed the RCA Dome to see the Southerners deliver a powerhouse performance. Bodiford said that the crowd went crazy over their performance, and since then, applications have been pouring into the band office from high school applicants from all over the United States. More than 600 students have sent in applications to the band department, most of whom had never heard of JSU until that performance. "BandBeat" magazine, whose target audience is high school band directors, raved over the Southerners' performance. "Since their debut in 1956, Jacksonville State University's Marching Southerners have been known as innovators in the marching band field. . . . Bodiford has assembled a crack team of creative forces that are propelling the Southerners headfirst into the next era of outdoor pageantry." Though the Southerners were a hit at the Grand Nationals, they did not forget their first love. "Our performance was at nine that night in Indianapolis," said Bodiford. "They ate, loaded the buses, drove all night back home, got off the bus, put on their uniforms and performed at a football game." Now that's dedication! |
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