Eight parades, two weeks, one successful summer

“It was an incredible summer. It was so good.”

Even with that glowing review, Pete Guenther may be under-selling the work of the Owatonna High School marching band.

But you decide:

Eight parades in two weeks, earning two grand champion awards; three first place awards; one second place; and one superior rating – with the best score of the season.

That second-place finish though, in Waconia, earned top marks for the wind section, “so we had best music,” said Guenther, the lead director.

The Litchfield parade was a sweep, with OHS winning best wind section, best drumline, best color guard, People’s Choice Award, and grand champion.

The win in Milaca marked the first time in 24 years that the Owatonna band defeated the Waconia band in a competition.

Two of the eight parades were the same day.

“That’s a lot of competitions,” Guenther said, again with the understatement, and that’s not counting the finale.

Practices

If that’s not proof enough of an incredible summer, consider this: On the days there wasn’t a parade, the band members often had a four-hour practice.

“I think it’s fair to say, marching band is a sport,” Guenther said. “Sometimes, people just look at it and say, that’s just band – how tough can it be? You don’t want to tell a band kid that.”

The coordination and precision speak for themselves.

“Try playing (an instrument) and standing still. Now try moving and not playing,” he said. “Now try doing both – it’s like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time.”

The four-hour practices, he insisted, “go by like a snap.”

They involve fundamental marching, musical warmups, instrument practice and full music rehearsal. The percussion section joins the group to practice moves of the drill with the drumline. Meanwhile, the color guard is rehearsing on its own.

The last 90 minutes, the entire group comes together “and we’ll put the show together, rehearse a full run of the show a couple of time, then it’s done,” Guenther said.

“Four hours is just about right; you can’t do it in less (time), because of the number of gears that are spinning,” he said.

On days there was a parade, practices were shorter.

“We would practice for a couple of hours at home, then load the buses, and when we’d get there, just kind of brush up and off you go,” he said.

Production

This season’s theme, performed in each parade, was “Surf’s Up.”

The musical selections included “Surfin’ Safari,” by the Beach Boys; “Swag Surfin’,” a hip-hop song by Fast Life Yungstaz; “God Only Knows,” another Beach Boys song, written by Brian Wilson; and ended with “Pump It” by Black Eyed Peas.

The theme came from a student, Guenther said.

“We take a bunch of ideas, just start spit-balling, and we settled on this,” he said.

Though summer production work typically begins in April, thanks to a late Easter, OHS prom and other busy schedules, the group didn’t start practice until the first weekend of May.

“I was stressed, because on top of that, we brought back the Memorial Day parade in Owatonna,” Guenther said, “so we marched in that, as well.”

Then Wilson died.

“Somebody looked at me and said, ‘well, now your show just became a tribute show to Brian Wilson, didn’t it?’ I said, ‘I didn’t plan that, but I guess so,” Guenther said.

He works with about 10 other adults, including his wife Holly, who is assistant director and in charge of the woodwind section.

“She sees things from a different perspective and is just a wealth of ideas,” Guenther said. “So we put our heads together and come up with this street show thing – and it ends up being really, really entertaining.”

Parades

The season felt like a bit of redemption.

“After the 2024 rain-out season – we even had to cancel out of a parade because of bad road conditions – I decided I needed to ramp it up a little bit,” Guenther said of the lineup.

That included a grand finale: a weeklong trip to Breckenridge, Colo., where the OHS band marched in the city’s Fourth of July parade. It was the only one of the eight parades that was not a competition.

It was also optional; 60 of the band’s 95 members made the trip, via bus.

“It was a blast,” Guenther said. “I’ve marched Disney in California, Disney in Florida … but the Colorado trip is such a different trip. You’re in nature’s playground, not Disney’s playground.”

The group, accompanied by the 10 adults and about eight other chaperones, visited the summit of Pike’s Peak via the Cog Railway; the Royal Gorge; Garden of the Gods; and the top of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.

They went whitewater rafting and traveled to downtown Denver for a July 3 celebration that featured the Colorado Symphony Brass and its percussion, as well as a 300-drone choreographed show.

There was a chuckwagon dinner one night, with brisket and baked beans, followed by a skit.

“Now you’re showing kids: this is what magnificence really is,” Guenther said, “and we showed it to them. It was just completely entertaining.”

The group finished its sightseeing in South Dakota, stopping at Mount Rushmore on the way home.

Payoff

The OHS band is setting trends, Guenther said.

“We’re taking the way a show is and turning it into something traditional, yet progressive,” he said. “One of the things I heard the most is, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before – that’s really cool.’ That’s what we’re shooting for, I think.”

The group also has a substantial fan base.

“The most beautiful thing was, all these people met our students, and they said, ‘These are some of the nicest kids we’ve ever had at our program,’” Guenther said. “They’re great ambassadors of our communities and our region.”

He believes the best thing about the band has nothing to do with music.

“The music is cool, and the moves are cool,” he said, “but the self-discipline and the confidence and the integrity are what I care about so much.”

The students build selflessness, “because when you’re in marching band, the only person you can control is yourself,” Guenther said. “Everybody’s got to do their job, and if you have that unified mindset, that’s a growth mindset.

“Then you just get better, because everybody’s just doing their job,” he said. “It’s amazing.

“Everybody’s varsity. You have 95 varsity athletes – that’s what you’ve got.”