A Texas middle school football team was penalized for the band in the stands doing what it supposed to do — play the team's fight song.
A referee threw the flag and told the student band he wanted quiet during the game and warned the Hudson Middle School's band director that he would keep throwing flags as long as the kids kept playing too loud.
The stunned band members packed up their brass instruments and drums and left before halftime.
They sure take their football seriously in the Lone Star State.
Students and parents were outraged at the official's maverick call.
"Hudson had the ball, our band started to play ... and that's when the ref threw the flag," said one mom. "I know a lot of parents will say football is more important than the band, but us band parents, we don't believe that."
If there is any justice to this story it's that the official was ordered to leave the field before halftime too. Garland ISD, the local school district, told the officiating organization to never assign that referee to any other events in the district.
"This was a first," said the Garland ISD spokesman Chris Moore. "First and last time it happens here."
Moore said the Garland ISD does not have a policy regarding bands playing at games and it appears that the ref was enforcing an NCAA rule set for college football games.
Actually most state associations have a rule the band cannot play while the game is going on. Can between plays but not when the teams break the huddle.
ReplyDeleteMaybe in your state, anonymous, but not in Texas or Oklahoma. Middle school and high school bands can play non-stop throughout the entire football game if they choose. In many cases, the band parents outnumber the football parents and would never accept something like this. Kudos to the school district for standing up for fine arts as well as athletics.
DeleteThanks for the clarification. I was thinking the same thing, that the band was required to stop before the play started. I know when I played the bands were required to stop as the offense lined up. This was to be fair to the schools that didn't have big band programs.
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