On Oct. 25, Nick Hogan, a special guest conductor, led the band in playing the fight song at the Bandorama Concert. 

Hogan is an offensive lineman for the football team. Hogan has been playing football for eight years and is wrapping up his senior season. 

“It’s been fun the whole year, and I have really enjoyed it. It’s been pretty awesome,” Hogan said. 

Other football players were contacted about this opportunity, but Hogan accepted the offer in seventh period on the day of the concert. 

“Most of the other kids didn’t want to do it. I kind of like being up in front of everyone, and I thought it would be something fun to do,” Hogan said. “I got a text message from one of the other players, and he told me someone on the football team had to conduct the song, but he didn’t want to. They volunteered me, and I thought it would be something cool and fun to do.”  

With it being Hogan’s first time conducting, he felt nervous and excited. Hogan had no prior knowledge of conducting, so he went along with what he felt was right. 

“I didn’t feel any pressure until I walked out on stage. I was talking to Mr. [Larry] Detwiler before, and he told me to just go up there and have fun. I was just trying to be as accurate as possible, and I figured it out,” Hogan said. 

Detwiler conducted the rest of the concert. Detwiler has been the band director for the school for 23 years. Detwiler has always allowed a special guest conductor at the Bandorama concerts. 

“Every year we have a guest conductor for the last fight song of the pre-game. We reached out to Coach Nedimyer, and he recommended him [Hogan] to represent the team,” Detwiler said. 

Detwiler talked to Hogan before the concert to teach him how to start the band, but let him take it from there. Detwiler told his students to play their instruments how they normally would. 

“The fight song is kind of automatic for students now, so he just needed to start them. They knew what to do from there,” Detwiler said. 

Detwiler expected a positive response from the audience after Hogan was done conducting. He thought they would enjoy that a student was doing it instead of an adult. 

“I expected them to react in the way that they did. Anytime you have a student doing that, it’s going to be well received,” Detwiler said. 

Sophomore Trevor Wilson thought Hogan’s conducting skills did not hinder the performance of the fight song. Wilson plays the clarinet in the band and has been playing for seven years. 

“I didn’t think what he [Hogan] did affected the concert, I think he did really well,” Wilson said. 

The band was not told Hogan was going to conduct until the day of the concert. The band was told that Andrew Neely was going to be conducting the fight song. 

“We were told that if Mr. Neely did a different tempo than normal, and we should just play how we normally would. Nick did it, and it was fine,” Wilson said 

Wilson thought it was refreshing to have someone else conduct a song. He also  thought it was a good experience for the whole band to have a student conduct. 

“I think someone doing it besides Mr. Detwiler is good for the band,” Wilson said.