Two years ago as school was starting up, I asked my amazing executive principal Dr. Steve Sheaffer if James Lawson High School could start looking for someone to replace me as the orchestra director. I had seen significant growth in both choir and orchestra programs and if I gave any more attention to choir, then orchestra would be penalized and vice versa. I was also frazzled trying to keep up with all of the logistics. My father was a workaholic and I have to fight for my right to keep a healthy marriage and give attention to my three kids.

Over the course of the year we found someone who I was thrilled to work with, Sherie Grossman. She is someone who has taught band, choir and orchestra before and has extensive leadership experience. She also was to bring back the class piano program, something that will help fill out the footprint of our incredible new building. It was a good time to transfer the baton due to the large number of seniors graduating. I gave an emotional speech to them during class on how they deserve someone that can focus solely on them and started getting them acclimated to the idea of a new teacher.

Because I now had a hole in my schedule when Mrs. Grossman arrived, I took on teaching a class called “intro to music technology” thanks to a grant from the Save the Music Foundation. The class is designed to give students exposure creating beats in GarageBand on iPads and then promoting them on to more advanced platforms. It was in my teaching of this class and getting to know the freshmen students that the origin story seed planted after Covid started to germinate. I came up with the idea of what would eventually be called the Gridiron Glee Club……..