It’s not just preseason time for football teams. It’s that
time of year for the marching bands as well and the Unionville High School
Marching Band is no exception.

The band has been practicing at Chadds Ford Elementary
School this week, practicing its music and marching, sweating and sweltering
amidst the mid August heat and humidity.

All the practice has paid off over the years. Last year the
band took first place in a state competition in Hershey in November while in
January of 2008 the group performed at the Gator Bowl.

This October the band will host a cavalcade of bands
competition, the March on the Brandywine, and in May the band will travel to
Louisville to perform during the Kentucky Derby weekend festivities.

 Band director Scott Litzenberg, in his 12^th year
at Unionville, thinks his charges–81 musicians, color guard and drum
majors–continually improve.

 “You can’t control what place somebody puts you in, but you
can control how well you perform. You can’t control if somebody else is better
than you, but the last number of years we’ve gotten better every year. … It’s
been kind of fun. I put that right on the kids and say, ‘ Listen you have to
step up. It’s your turn,’” he said.

 The attrition rate for the band has been fairly constant.
Each year it loses about 20 members and gains about 20.

 “As a staff we’ve been pretty lucky having a great bunch of
kids to work with,” Litzenberg added. “We have a really good time and we enjoy
being around them.”

 He said he hasn’t talked about the derby appearance yet
because right now he’s trying to focus on the upcoming season. For the band
members, that preparation began with this first week of camp. For Litzenberg
and his staff of about 10, however, that preparation began in January.

 The goal right now is just to get the band members ready.
They’re working on three pieces of music and the marching choreography. The
choreography for each member is detailed, maybe more so, than the X’s and O’s
the football team has to learn for its plays.

 Diagrams for the marching show the places for 81 people,
every so many counts per song. The diagram for the first song shows 34 different
drill sets, Litzenberg said.

 “They have to be in a specific spot and it takes a while to
learn all this,” he said. “We started writing this in January. It’s not just
show up and start playing.”

 The band members will learn about two thirds of their
program by the end of the seventh day of camp, then learn the remainder once
school resumes.

 “You can learn it pretty quickly, but doing it well is
another story,” Litzenberg said. “It will take a while for it to get to the
point where we want it.

 He was certain the group would have it together by the first
performance, the first football game of the season. After that, it’s improve,
improve, improve.

 “By the time of [The March on the Brandywine] we should be
cranking pretty good,” he said.

 On Nov. 14 it will be to Hershey for this year’s state
competition.

 The band will perform at UHS football games including the
playoffs.