James Nicholas
A Mountain Brook band member during the pre-game festivities before a game between Mountain Brook and Demopolis on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025, at Spartan Stadium. Photo by James Nicholas.
Under the late-summer sun, the Mountain Brook High School marching band is already hard at work — piecing together drills, harmonies and one of its most ambitious halftime shows yet.
With football season underway and competitions on the horizon, the Spartan band is deep into fall prep. Students are balancing long rehearsals, rising expectations and a show that blends modern Broadway hits with something rare for a high school program — live vocal performance. At the heart of it all are student leaders such as senior drum major Ada Dapkus, who said the show only works when every piece comes together.
“We want to not only create a really great performance, but we want it to sound really cool,” Dapkus said. “I think having all of the pieces come together from the many different aspects of the marching band is what makes the overall show really great. We couldn’t be more excited.”
James Rogers, MBHS director of bands, has spent the past nine years growing the program — nearly doubling its size in that time.
“I think one thing that has helped our program is we have developed how we build and prepare our musicians,” Rogers said. “Our retention in the band is much higher now. We retain roughly 90% of students. We are getting kids into the program, and they are finding they genuinely love it. We also allow for students to be involved in other extracurriculars, so they aren’t tied down to just band. Our marching band is a cornerstone for serving our community. We play at graduation; we try to be available for community events that need the band there. There is always something we are preparing for and practicing, and it is a great thing we get to do — the music we love and enjoy.”
For Dapkus, what began as a favorite class has become a long-term passion.
“I have been in the marching band for four years, and the band as a whole for six years,” Dapkus said. “When I first started, I was in sixth grade and music was one of the classes that I got really excited about each day. I got involved in playing the bassoon and that developed a passion for the instrument that has me wanting to pursue playing the bassoon even in college. It has just been a really great experience for me.”
She also set an early goal — to one day become drum major.
“This year, in marching band, our show is based off of modern musicals,” Dapkus said. “Seeing how it was arranged and how it all came together has been something that is really cool. When we first start practicing in the summer you kind of piece little things together at one time. Then as we keep practicing it begins to all come to life and by the end of summer we have the whole show down. I love hearing how it all fits together.”
That process starts well before the school year.
Each summer, students attend a week of band camp — where the fall halftime show begins to take shape.
“We have one week of band camp where we have rehearsals from 1 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.,” Rogers said. “We have a one hour break for dinner and we feed the students at the school. We have some incredible band parents that bring food for the kids and that way we can work on getting everything ready without taking too much time out of the day. We are inside from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and outside from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., so it is a really full day.”
Once the school year begins, students rehearse daily, perform at Friday night games and participate in events across the community.
MBHS senior Sam Eagan said one of his favorite parts of the band is the culture of support.
“You know you can always count on the people in the band,” Eagan said. “That is a huge aspect of why people get involved with it because it is a community of people that all have your back. For many of us, we are also involved in different things so if a bandmate is playing a different sport, I can go cheer them on.”
One of his core memories didn’t happen on the field, but on a long ride home.
“I think just driving home and being together with other kids in the band and listening to songs was a pivotal moment in my band career where I felt like the community aspect was so important. There is also an emotional tie that I have to the band and I am very thankful for that.”
This year’s show also features a new element.
“We have a really unique aspect in that we have someone singing in every part of the show,” Eagan said. “There are not many high school marching bands that have a singing aspect.”
As the season begins, Dapkus said the students are proud of what they’ve built.
“Our show this year is technically difficult,” Dapkus said. “We have a lot of moving parts with it, but once we get everyone situated and where they need to be it is going to sound amazing. We are really excited to bring the show to everyone and we hope they love it as much as we do.”
