The Facts

Marching Band is an extracurricular activity

• Students must be enrolled in a Concert Band class to march (not applicable to Color Guard.)

• Marching Band takes place outside of school hours - there is no Marching Band Class.

• With Director's permission, 8th Graders may be eligible to participate with our high school marching band

• Students who are interested in dance can participate in our Color Guard.

• Participation in Marching Band counts as an Alternative PE Credit.

• There are several extracurricular music opportunities in High School such as Jazz Band, Pep Band, Pit Orchestra, Winter Percussion, and Winter Guard.

The marching band season is about five months

• The students have practices in late May/early June and then come back at the end of July for Band Camp.

• Band Camp is where the students start learning the show, make friends, and get connected.

• When school starts, we typically practice 3 days a week after school for 2-3 hours plus the students attend football games and contests.

• The season ends in early November.

There is a cost to participate in marching band

• Being extracurricular, most of our costs are not covered by the school system.

• We set our fees each season as low as they can be in order to cover the cost of our meals, transportation, and staff.

• There are several ways to cover these costs. Many parents have spent NO out-of-pocket money by leveraging these opportunities. Fundraising information can be found here.

• More information on fees can be found here.

Parade Camp

• Traditionally, the first week of summer band in June will be called Parade Camp. Marchers can participate in this camp without committing to being in the Marching Band for the rest of the season.

• Students participating in Parade Camp will march in the Spark!Fishers Parade (last weekend in June).

• In late June, students have the final option of registering for the Marching Band, committing to participate as an official member of RCG for the rest of the season.

How will your child benefit from RCG?

RCG is a community

With nearly 3000 students in the high school, it can be very hard for a child to find their place or not to get lost in the crowd. The band is a community of 150 students within our school that spend time outside of school building relationships that will often last the rest of their lives. When a 9th-grade marching band member walks into the high school on the first day of school they have freshman, sophomore, junior and senior friends everywhere they look.

RCG is a place for everyone

Marching band is like very few other activities because we accept everyone.  We don’t audition and cut people – we just create more positions.  In fact, we are the biggest activity at the high school with about 5% of the school population.  

RCG is about family

“How was your day”?  “Fine”.  “What did you do today”?  “Nothing”.  Is this conversation familiar?  As our children get into high school they have their own world and their own friends and we are not a part of it so they begin to drift away.  If you go behind the scenes at an RCG practice or contest you will see dozens of parents helping our kids with uniforms, food, first aid, equipment, and so on.  In sports, the parents are in the stands but in marching band, there are opportunities for parents to get involved with their students.  Many of our parents will tell you that when they walk down the hall their child’s friends say hi and know them by name.

RCG teaches students how to achieve

Parents today struggle to find a way to get their children off the couch, off the video games, away from the TV, etc.  The key is to get kids “on to” something rather than trying to get them off of something.  Most children have never had the experience of working hard at something for weeks or months and seeing what they can achieve when they apply themselves.  It doesn’t matter whether a person spends hundreds of hours perfecting a gymnastics routine, learning to swing a golf club or perfecting a music performance – the process is the same.  Our members learn how to grow themselves which is a skill that will help them the rest of their lives.

RCG grows leaders

We are a place where upper-classmen are able to take a leadership role.  Students are organized into sections with section captains that are responsible for their sections.  We work with our upperclassmen on how to lead and as members get older we help them to step into those leadership roles.

RCG is about teamwork

Marching Band contests are scored as a team so we are only as good as our weakest member.   Because of this, our members work to help each other become better.  Our students have an attitude of building each other up rather than competing with each other.  It is common for section leaders and older students to meet with new members one on one or in groups to help them with parts.