Some trouble has been reported with the Fair and Football worker links below. While it is uncertain what the problem is... if you have a problem viewing those files please email Mr. Sloan to receive a copy via email.
Football Concession Schedule (click to download)
THE FAIR IS COMING!!!!
Fair Worker Schedule (click to download)... there are several open slots. Call Abbi Price to sign up!
Coming SOON!... Fair Parking Lot (for students)... Student Fair Booth Signup (to be found in the Band Room)... working BOTH of these events adds to your students TRIP ACCOUNTS!
GET DRILL HERE (for rehearsal on Monday, August 18)
2008-2009 School Year Dates (in progress)
July 21-25 Meetings, Rehearsals, Uniform Fittings TBA
July 27-August 1 Band Camp
August 4-15 Rehearsals TBA
August 22 First Football Game (H)
October 17 Senior Night at Football Game
October 21 Marching Band Concert (PAC)
December 2 Christmas Concert Grades 6-12 (PAC)
January 24 HS Solo and Ensemble
February 1 OMEA District III Festival Concert (Lima Civic Center)
February 24 HS Band Winter Concert
March 6-7 HS District Large Group Contest
NEW- May 12 MS Spring Concert
May 14 HS Spring Concert
NEW- May 15-16 MS Large Group Contest
(More dates will be posted as they are available)
NEW UNIFORMS!!! Debuted for the world 9/7/07... THANK YOU BAND PARENTS ASSOCIATION!!
Late VWHS band director remembered
By PAUL HOVERMAN
For The Van Wert independent
For many of the Baby Boomer generation who walked the hallowed halls of Van Wert High School, the name Jay L. Hall conjures up strong emotions of one kind or another. This is a rather large understatement for those I am referring to (and we all know who we are). The man many of us thought would live forever passed away Friday morning, August 3. Jay Hall was only the third band director in the history of Van Wert High School. He served as director of bands from 1960-1976. I was privileged to be one of his students for all but my final year of high school. Mr. Hall lived the last 20 plus years of his life in Marion. His wife, Carolyn, was from Marion and they decided to locate there in retirement to help care for Carolyn’s ailing mother. It is rather difficult to know where to begin with a man who had such a huge impact on my life, as well as the lives of many others. I think it is fair to say there were few people who had a neutral opinion of Mr. Hall. This is a characteristic I feel applies to most strong leaders. I believe it is important to understand some of his background, because I believe it is what helped mold him into the educator and man he was. Jay Hall was born and raised in Van Wert. His high school music education and inspiration for music would have come under the tutelage of Leonard Wolf, the “Father of Van Wert Bands.” Following high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where his talent on the trumpet landed him in the Army Band during the Korean Conflict. Following his stint in the military, he attended Bowling Green State University, where he earned a bachelor of music degree in education. His first band job was at Liberty Benton High School. This was followed by a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied under legendary U of M Band Director William Ravelli. Some referred to Ravelli as the “George Patton of College Bands,” but boy did he have an impact on the history of bands in America! Mr. Hall’s affiliation with Michigan led to many amusing office battles during the fall between him and then-choir director L.W. “Larry” Schaufelberger, a very loyal Buckeye who shared a small office space with Jay for many years. In 1960, the opportunity to return home to Van Wert came to Mr. Hall and he just couldn’t refuse the opportunity to carry the baton handed down by Mr. Wolf to Mr. Herb Jones and then to him. Following two legends in Van Wert must have been a daunting task, but if anyone was ever up to the task, it would have been Jay Hall. He arrived on the Van Wert campus around the same time that Larry Schaufelberger arrived as choir director. The two of them ruled the Van Wert High School Music Department for the next two decades. Those who took both choir and band would have them back-to-back. For many years, Concert Choir was third period and Band was fourth. If you survived “Schauf’s” class, you still had to face Mr. Hall the next period. Many with weaker stomachs had a real hard time digesting both. His background shaped the kind of band director he became. Mr. Hall was a man of execution and great attention to detail. He was demanding and expected from his students no less than he was willing to give. Many students had a difficult time living up to Mr. Hall’s expectations and demands. It was not easy for the new director at first. It took his bands six years before he finally got a superior rating at contest, but once he got things working the way he wanted them, he would run off a string of 11 years with superior ratings at district contest and many years with straight I’s at the state level. My brother, Philip, noted that his Class of 1971 went through all four years of high school with straight I’s at state. He also noted that they were competing with “A2” level music (mostly college level music) and a rating system that was more challenging at that time. It was Mr. Hall’s last year at Van Wert that produced perhaps his best band ever. I have heard Mr. Schaufelberger comment numerous times that he felt Jay’s best band was the 1976 band. In Schauf’s many years of music in the schools, he said he has never heard a high school band play like that one did. I was privileged to be a part of that band as a junior. I would have to say that we did feel like a champion football team going into the playoffs. I think we had that quiet confidence or “swagger” you hear commentators refer to with championship teams. We knew we were ready and well prepared. I remember Mr. Hall telling us he would be proud to go into battle with any of us -- one of the many pre-show pep talks we would get. Doug Wolf, one of Mr. Hall’s former students who is now a music educator at the University of Utah, e-mailed me upon learning of Mr. Hall’s passing. He expressed how much he appreciated the education and commitment to excellence that Jay instilled in him, as well as the contribution he made to the musical heritage of Van Wert. I imagine Doug had a special place in Mr. Hall’s heart, being the grandson of Leonard Wolf, Jay’s high school director. My brother, who just recently retired as a very successful band director, expressed his feelings about Mr. Hall. He said we all learned so much about music by just sitting in his classroom. Some college music students needed private study to learn the intricacies of music we learned from Jay Hall in band class; things such as how to shape a musical phrase, how to play in tune, and how to make the music come alive off the printed page. Most of all, my brother pointed out the attention to detail and demand for excellence Mr. Hall instilled in us. I know he was the inspiration for starting the Hoverman family of musicians. I think he also had a great deal to do with shaping the kind of people my brother and I grew up to be. For all the demands and hard work Mr. Hall required of us, he also had a soft side to him. As I perused through old VWHS yearbooks, I was looking for pictures of Mr. Hall. I just happened to turn in the 1966 Excalibur and noticed a note handwritten on the music page to one of his students. It reads, “Pam, I hope you have a lifetime of happiness and success. Don’t stop playing your flute and come back to see us often.” -- Jay Hall. As I sat in the funeral home during his funeral service this week, many thoughts went through my mind. There, sitting on a stand behind me was a framed picture of the 1976 VWHS Marching Band in a “VW” formation, along with a plaque from the Senior Class of ‘76 that thanked him for his years of dedication and service to the youth of VWHS and wished him good luck in the future. Following a small private service, I walked up to Mrs. Hall and re-introduced myself to her. It has been 25 years since I last saw her. She looked up at me and said, “Oh, I remember you!” “This is another one of Jay’s students who came,” she said to a relative. She was so pleased that some of us remembered him. I got the feeling that those of us who were his students meant more to him than we ever knew. As I walked out of the funeral home, I gave a big sigh and shed a tear for the passing of a man who impacted me in a great way. I think I was shedding a tear for many others who were touched by the man we knew as “Mr. Hall, our Band Director.” Mr. Hall always made us learn the words to the VWHS “Alma Mater.” I think they would have expressed his sentiments during his last days:
"O, Van Wert High the school we love
Our true devotion we would prove
Thy traditions gladly share
Thy noble banner proudly bear
In our work and in our play
We’ll ever strive to lead the way.
School we love on us rely
The loyal youth of Van Wert High!"
Thank you, Mr. Hall, for leading the way for many of us at Van Wert High.
8/10
Crawford Street Band Room 1962-2006
Many great ensembles have performed within the walls of the Crawford Street Band Room. But before this band room there were others. In 1962 a band of young men and woman moved into this room and began to call it their home. Excited by their new surroundings they maintained a focus on the heritage of greatness that began in 1929 when Leonard Wolf founded the Van Wert Band. Every year since then the building aged, but the focus remained the same. Musicians came and went, but greatness remained the same. We now move into a new house and begin to make it our home. Seek to honor those that came before us by continuing their heritage of greatness, and by leaving your own legacy of excellence for others to follow… in the new home of the Van Wert Bands.
It is not size or shape that defines a house… but rather the strength of the family that dwells within it.
Alumni... where are you now? Let us know... click here.
This site was last updated: August 26, 2008
hits since the site was officially posted on June 29, 2004.
