Ninth-Graders Swell Ranks of High School Marching Bands : More Rookies Mean Putting Simi Valley Initiation Rituals on Hold, but Dating Opportunities Abound for the Tight-Knit Groups

It is a time-honored initiation for the new high school band member: the stealth approach of the family minivan in the wee hours of the morning, the blinding wake-up call of voices and flashlights, the outlandish costuming and the humiliating predawn photograph. Then the intimate pancake breakfast for 40 at the drum major’s house.

Not this year.

The parent-sanctioned kidnapping of new Simi Valley High School Marching Pioneers--a ritual older than the Fiberglas sousaphone--has been abandoned, a victim of the marching band’s recent surge in size from a total of 90 to about 150.

The band’s swollen ranks--and a similar phenomenon at Simi Valley’s Royal High School--are directly attributable to a school district reconfiguration that makes high schools four-year--rather than three-year--institutions by bumping ninth-graders out of junior high for the first time this fall.

So, instead of tutoring just incoming sophomores in the rituals, jargon and cultural mores of band, the Simi High upperclassmen must mold both ninth- and 10th-graders. Thus, the band council nixed kidnapping and will resort to another secret initiation.

“We would love to do it,” said drum major Aaron Gradle. “But it’s such a big group of people this year.”

The influx will change much of band tradition, from how many music stands must be purchased to how large the notoriously cliquish band dating pool is. It will also bring a bigger sound and the opportunity for more expansive choreography for the marching band.

The most immediate change is funding, said Simi High band director Larry Elginer. In June, band boosters from both high schools petitioned the school board trustees for an additional $72,000 to buy uniforms, music stands and instruments for the newcomers at both schools.

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The school board complied, allocating $24,000 for Simi Valley and Royal High bands to purchase new instruments, which should arrive before school starts this week, Elginer said. The city’s new magnet high school, Santa Susana, will not have its own band.

During this summer’s two-week band camp, Simi High musicians borrowed saxophones, baritones and marimbas from nearby middle schools. Both high schools also received $12,000 for new uniforms.

During the hot and noisy band camp, the numbers of neophytes--immediately recognizable by their smaller stature and slightly befuddled expressions--hit home.

The influx “poses a lot of challenges, because this is the first year we’ve had freshmen . . . so we’re nurturing their skills and being patient with them,” Elginer said.

Many of the younger musicians, for example, have never marched in formation, so concepts as basic as the well-worn “8 to 5”--taking eight steps to every five yards--are foreign to them. Some band greenhorns have never before memorized up to a dozen songs--used during halftime shows, parades and competition.

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But they are fast learning the marching band ropes--first with cacophonous, and later with harmonious, results.

“The caliber of this group of new students is really very good,” Elginer said during a recent band camp lunch break. “They were prepared well by their junior highs. . . . I don’t think they’ll hold us down at all.”

Freshman trumpet player Melvin Lo Bello agrees--to a point.

“So far it’s pretty easy,” the 14-year-old said. Recalling the complexity of the marches he’s learned, Melvin amends that thought. “Well, marching is easy, and playing is hard. I’m only a one-year player, and the music we’ve gotten into right now is hard for me.”

Freshman flute player Stacy Cunningham, 14, concurred. “When I was in eighth grade,” she mused, “the music was a whole lot easier. Then it was slower. Now it’s much faster--it’s a lot of sixteenths notes.”

But neither ninth-grader has been hazed for inexperience. Maybe that’s because the newcomers constitute a majority in the Simi High band. This particular fact makes Melvin feel right at home. “It’s kind of nice to know that practically the whole band is new, so half of them don’t know what they’re talking about either.”

Then again, the nature of high school band cultivates close friendships. Bandies eat lunch together, practice together and socialize together.

This year, getting to know each other in such a massive group has been a little tougher, said band president Deanna Rivera, a senior. But these things come with time.

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Marching band “is like a big family because you spend so much time together and you have a lot of things in common,” said the 17-year-old baritone player. “We all like music, and we all like to march.”

Well, not quite like a family.

“There is a bigger dating pool to look at too,” the pretty, dark-haired girl said shyly. “Because it’s band, and you’re with each other all the time, you get to know each other very well.”

The changes prompted by the ballooning band are not all levity, she added.

With a bolstered band, you get a bigger sound, she said. You also have a more prominent field presence--both important factors in hotly contested band competitions.

Choreography also changes. A smaller band, such as the Simi bands of yore, can appear almost puny on a football field. With more warm bodies to work with, “there are more expansive movements, and you cover more of the field,” band director Elginer said.

With school starting this week, all the musicians say without hesitation that this year’s Marching Pioneers will become a force to be reckoned with, on and off the field.

As for the abandoned kidnapping ritual, both Deanna and Melvin said they are optimistic that it will be resumed in a year or two. After all, the band will again accept one incoming class, instead of two, next fall.

Melvin will be a worldly sophomore then. “By next year, I’ll be doing the kidnapping,” he fairly cackles.