Kai Staton-Green
The Dublin Scioto High School marching band practices six months of the year, through the hottest weeks of the summer, for up to three hours a day. Every year, these energetic students strive not only to perfect their season routine but also to connect with the Dublin community at weekend competitions and Friday night football games.
The band’s 2024 season, however, had a bit of a twist.
Kai Staton-Green
“When we were designing our marching band show for the year, we really wanted to pick something that we thought would resonate with the students and the families,” Band Director Andy Doherty says. “We wanted something that would really help connect the students on the field with the audience in the stands.”
The idea was born in 2023 when the 98-student band discovered a Metallica marching band competition for high schoolers. Although it was too late to enter at the time, Doherty and the band were inspired.
“This group of kids, they’re just so hard-working, they’re so motivated, they have incredible attitudes, they’re a really special group of kids,” Doherty says. “They’re just fun to be around and we were like, ‘Well, Metallica really seems to fit this personality.’”
The students thus began planning and choreographing a Metallica performance for their upcoming season, Doherty says. Conveniently, Metallica soon after announced that the competition would be a recurring event.
“How it works is if you performed a show that had select, certain Metallica songs in it, then you were eligible to participate in this competition,” Doherty says. “So, at the end of the season, you just submitted your video to Metallica, and they post it on their marching band competition website.”
Senior and Bb clarinetist Aleah Hixson says that learning the Metallica routine was difficult.
“It’s always a little challenging just because we have to memorize it and then that combined with learning our steps and all the fun visuals that Mr. Doherty likes to add in,” Hixson says. “It was definitely worth it though.”
Doherty says he designed the number to include Metallica classics “Enter Sandman,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Nothing Else Matters.”
"If you're going to do something, put your best effort into it." -Hixson
“I think he probably picked these songs because they’re well known, and he knew that we could connect with the audience,” Hixson says. “Not only do we know this music, but so many adults and older people know Metallica’s music. I think that just makes it even cooler.”
Hixson played a key role in “Nothing Else Matters.”
Kai Staton-Green
“I did have a solo,” she says. “I played on an electric clarinet.”
Her solo lasted for nearly the entire song with her electric clarinet hooked up to a computer for different heavy metal sound effects.
Competition winners were determined by a fan vote, a judging panel and Metallica itself, Doherty says. The Scioto High School marching band won first place in the fan favorite vote and second place by the judging panel in the medium high school category. As one of three finalists, the band was ranked second by Metallica and was awarded $20,000, Doherty says.
“It just shows me, you can do anything,” Hixson says. “Because, as a high schooler especially, you don’t really expect these big things to happen to you.”
Doherty says the marching band’s winning video was so popular online and within the community that school faculty could hardly scroll on social media without seeing it repeatedly on their feed. This same community, he says, was dedicated to helping the band win the fan favorite vote.
Kai Staton-Green
Hixson says she’s proud of her growth and that of her bandmates during the course of the season.
“If you’re going to do something, put your best effort into it,” Hixson says. “Sometimes you have off nights when you’re performing… but that could also be the video that ends up being put into this competition that Metallica watches, so I think it’s just important to put your all into whatever you’re doing.”
Frances Denman is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback is welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
