{What is your position at North?}
Director of band, director of instrumental music, and the fine arts department chair at Norman North.

{How long have you had this position?}
This will be my 16th year.

{What did you do before coming to North?}
I was the assistant band director at Southeastern Louisiana University for 3 years.

{What’s your favorite part of band season?}
Maya is my favorite part of band season.
Oh, you want a legitimate answer?

{At least we know who your favorite band kid is.}
{[Your] daughter?}
Some days, not all days, she was not my favorite this morning.
I like it all, a lot of aspects, not as much as I used to but I still do.

{Anything specific?}
It’s all fun. Practice in the morning has never really been fun, we would all like to get some more sleep in, but it’s when we have to practice.

{What’s been your favorite experience as a band teacher?}
Ever?
{Yeah.}
That’s good, I never thought of that. Could it be more than one?
{Sure.}
One of my favorites was performing for the USS Oklahoma memorial ceremony in Hawaii 5 years ago. One of my favorites was at Southeastern Louisiana University when we played Oklahoma State in the first round at the NCAA tournament and all the kids in the from Louisiana wanted to go see the bombing memorial and that was kind of cool to go to that with kids who did not live here. It was a neat experience.

{What’s your favorite section?}
They’re all my favorite

{Who’s your favorite section leader?}
They’re all my favorite section leaders. I’m not going to get caught in that trap.

{What has the band accomplished this year?}
So far, we made a superior rating at the OSSAA state marching competition that qualifies us for the OSSAA sweepstakes award. How that works is you have to make a one in marching band and as well superior ratings on stage and in site reading. It’s our state championship.

{Do you have anything to say about the rumors that you retiring?}
Yes, I’m not.
{Anything else? Do you have any idea where that rumor could have stemmed from?}
I have no earthly idea. I would assume it would be because my youngest daughter is graduating this year.

{Do you plan on retiring?}
Well yeah, at some point, when I’m old. I’m not old yet, just because you have snow and roof, does not mean the fire isn’t still hot inside.

{On a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you like Mr. Vanvickle?}
0. Just kidding, he’s a 10.

{What do you do outside of school?}
Nothing, I’m a band director. I go to lots of volleyball games because my daughter is a volleyball player.

{What instruments do you play?}

My main instrument is percussion, but I can play all of them. I play a pretty good saxophone and clarinet.

{How would you go about with a student who does not know how to read music, essentially, foreign to playing music?}
You have to teach them the language, because music is a language.