A very exciting moment in Linganore’s history is taking place this year. Mr. Kevin Lloyd is celebrating his 25th anniversary working as the band director. To celebrate this moment, Lloyd invited more than 50 former Lancers to march with the band before the homecoming game on October 4.

Rusty Ray, 1998 graduate and professional journalist, was invited to perform along with the band, but he had grander plans. He decided he wanted to make a documentary about the event. 

Ray wanted to honor his teacher and fellow Lancers during their return to the marching band field.  He flew from Minnesota with his camera and microphone to record the performance. 

“I’m not doing this for money. I didn’t even ask if I could make this documentary. I bought a plane ticket and packed my stuff. Linganore is a legacy, and I wanted to document that,”

“Anyone who has been in the marching band, knows the marching cadence like they know their own names. They marched down the hill and during the pre game performance,” said Lindsay Toothaker, Class of 2022 and clarinetist. 

Lloyd recently marched with his college band. “West Virginia University invited its alumni back on their homecoming weekend to march pregame with their marching band. I thought this was a great idea, so I created an alumni band Facebook which has 350 members. When I posted the idea, I got lots of positive feedback and interest,” said Lloyd.

Having the alumni return meant more to the participants. 

“Marching again meant so much more to me than I realized or expected it would. It was so much fun to get to do that again, to go back in time and relive some of my best memories of growing up,” Lindsey Seiver, Class of 2000 said. 

 Seiver and her husband came to the Homecoming game along with the other alumni to march with the band. 

“My husband [Joe Seiver, Class of 1999] and I met in marching band. Marching again was much fun and allowed me to go back and relive some of my best memories of growing up. It meant so much to Joe and I just to march every Friday night when we first got together. It brought all those feelings back from all those years,” Lindsey said. 

“I came to Linganore in 1995 when the former director, Mr. Brian Hinkley, accepted a band director position at the new Urbana High School. I inherited a good program but I had the challenge of some of the kids being disappointed that he left, which I had to overcome,” Lloyd said.

Over the years the band has been very successful, winning so many awards, that the trophies line the shelves in the band room. 

“The marching band has won many USBands State Championships during my time here. As well as a couple of Chapter Championships in Tournament of Bands,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd has been recognized as well.

“As a teacher, I’ve been Washington Post Teacher of the Year, a Maryland Music Educators Association Outstanding Teacher Award, an FCPS Teacher of the Year Finalist, a Golden Lance award winner. I was also named by School Band and Orchestra Magazine as one of the 50 Director Who Make A Difference in American Schools.” 

This year, the theme of the marching band is the Apollo 11th landing 50th anniversary. The production is filled with music and flying color guard flags. 

But how does Mr.Lloyd create such “out of this world” productions?

“I have been working with a handful of composers around the country who wrote marching band shows and have websites where you can preview their work. When I choose a marching show, I try to strike a balance between something substantive enough to serve at competitions and something that would be entertaining for a football game crowd,” he said.

Most of the music from this year comes from Competitive March Band Shows, 

 Lloyd has created performances from known movies or stories. Rusty Ray talked about his senior year production, West Side Story. Ray played the trombone.

“It was Mr.Lloyd’s third year at Linganore, and Urbana had just been built. They[Urbana] were beating us at everything and we[the students] had had enough of it. Mr.Lloyd went to creating the production based on West Side Story which we did really well with.”

Ray does not have a specific time frame for completion of the documentary.