PERRYVILLE BAND AT BOWL

PERRYVILLE -- While most people spent New Year's watching televised football games, the 112 members of the Perryville High School Marching Buccaneers played during a halftime show.

The band performed with about 2,000 other students during the Florida Gator Bowl Monday in Jacksonville. The group returned to Perryville early Wednesday to a blanket of snow and dismissed classes.

The Marching Buccaneers band played a six-minute medley of hits from the last five decades during the halftime show. Monday's game marked the 50th anniversary of the bowl game.

The performance included 2,300 students from end zone to end zone, said Bill Fischer, who has been directing the band for the last 16 years.

The students only practiced the songs for a month prior to the performance, and every note had to be memorized. While they were in Florida, the band had two hours of practice as a large group.

"It was hard because you couldn't see the director," said sophomore Sarah Berkbigler, who plays the piccolo. "But they were songs you heard before and we knew how they sounded; we just had to figure it out."

At the suggestion of band members' parents, Fischer applied for the bowl game performance about a year ago by sending in an audition tape.

"I had been toying with it in the back of my mind," he said. "We decided to go South. It was the first time we attempted to travel."

The band members and chaperones left Perryville Sunday on a chartered bus and returned at 5 a.m. Wednesday. The trip also included some sightseeing at the Universal Studios in Orlando and the Jacksonville riverfront.

Senior Theresa Schindler, who plays the clarinet, said the trip and performance were a good way to "go out with a bang."

"I would definitely do it again," she said. "Maybe next time I'll go as a chaperone." She conducted the band during the parade but played during the field show.

The next major event for the band will be district and state music competitions.