After 10 years, music marches back onto Central High field

The first thing Central High School principal Anthony Madry wanted to see when he walked into the Kansas City school a year ago was its band room.

“It was actually being used for storage,” Madry recalled.

That scene didn’t sit well with Madry, once a top high school saxophone player and former school band director.

Central had once been known for its Marching Eagles. But like other middle and high schools in the Kansas City Public Schools District, its music program whittled away due to a lack of funding and declining enrollment.

While a beginning music class— that few kids enrolled in — was available at the school, Central had been without a performing band for a decade. Band was offered only one class a day, not enough instruction to move students to a marching band performance level.

“We were just wasting money, wasting time because we were not trying to grow them into anything,” Madry said.

He started looking for a band director. “I had to find the right guy,” Madry said. He found Osmond Fisher at Wyandotte High School and hired him to come to Central.

“I told him I would be the best principal he could ever work for because I was a band director. I understand the struggle.”

The struggle met Fisher at the band room door the day he started the job in early June.

“When I looked at the instruments they were out of their cases, several of them were damaged many of them unrepairable. It was a shock.”

Most of the instruments, Fisher said, had been bought by the district in 2008 — “a half million dollar purchase. I was heartbroken to see how the administration had handled such a major investment.”

Starting a band program from the bottom is not a new challenge for Fisher, a graduate of Central State University, a Historically Black College in Wilberforce, Ohio. Kickstarting a band program is what he has done at other schools he has worked in around the Kansas City area, including Hogan Preparatory Academy, and the former Derrick Thomas charter school.

But Fisher would have less than two months to get this band ready to take the field for Central’s homecoming game — this Saturday at 1 p.m.

“It’s been very stressful,” Fisher said. Some of the students who will be on the field had never played an instrument before starting with Fisher this year.

“My nights are restless,” he said. “I’m thinking what I have to do to turn a beginning band program into an entertaining marching ensemble in six weeks.”

On Tuesday, four days before homecoming game, students filed into the band room and milled about, pulling instruments from the shelving and arranging seating to prepare for the day’s lesson.

“QUIET!” Fisher’s voice rose above the chaotic sound of blaring horns, clarinets and conversations.

“Horns up,” Fisher instructed. “One. Two. Easy tongue,” he said while pacing back and forth in front of the class of 15 students. His arms waved up and down counting out beats.

“Keep the air moving. Think about how the tongue interrupts the air flow. Sit up straight and tall, feet squarely planted on the floor.”

Anthony Perez, who plays sousaphone, is one of Fisher’s top band members.

“Mr. Fisher is cool,” said Anthony who also plays piano and guitar at home but started sousaphone this year. “He is really a good teacher. There are a lot of new students in band. I thought it would just be a so-so band but it turns out this band is doing pretty good. Everyone is learning fast.”

Anthony, 14 and a freshman, said he loves music and when he heard Central would have a marching band, “I was like, yes.”

Many mornings, Anthony comes to school sleepy, “but band really wakes me up.”

It’s already changing the outlook for some students. Dominique Brown, 16, plays bass drum. He joined the band when he learned that if he’s good and keeps his grades up, “maybe I can get a scholarship. It’s very exciting.”

That’s exactly the motivation Madry was hoping to see generated among band students. And if he’s right about the importance of having a school band, what Dominique is feeling will be contagious among Central’s students.

“The band is the face of any school,” Madry said. “ When you have a good band, a great band it’s how we showcase our school.”

More importantly, Madry said, “What a band is about is self-discipline. It’s about being a unit. One sound. I believe that as the band gets stronger so will the school.”

Band members don’t have uniforms just yet.

“We are working on getting uniforms,” Madry said.

On Saturday band members will wear shorts and t-shirts in the school royal blue and white.

Bringing back the band, Madry said, “will bring back pride. Look at Historically Black Colleges. People don’t come to their games for the football they come for the the band, the half-time show.”

At last Saturday’s game about 300 students, faculty and community members were sprinkled through out the stands.

But for homecoming, Madry said, we are expecting over a thousand.

“This is going to be a really big deal for Central.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 10:15 AM with the headline "After 10 years, music marches back onto Central High field."