SEGUIN, Texas – When the Mighty Matador band takes the stands Friday night, it won't be playing for Seguin.
Instead, the high school band members have volunteered to back the Rockport-Fulton football team when it plays Leander's Glenn High School in a neutral-ground matchup at Seguin. With Rockport's world turned upside-down by Hurricane Harvey, the band members want to set at least one part of that world right.
"I can't go out there and help in the actual affected area," said Sheldon Scholl, a brass captain in the Seguin High School band. "And this is the best thing I can do, is help the band play for Rockport."
Rockport, a small city near Corpus Christi, was slammed by Harvey when it made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane. While the football team has continued to play, SHS band director Stan Mauldin said the 80 members of Rockport-Fulton's band are either at a nearby school district or spread as far north as Dallas.
"Those kids may or may not move back home again, and so that band is going to change for quite a while," he said.
The matchup between the two, out-of-town football teams predated Harvey, but the idea to play for Rockport-Fulton started with a conversation at a booster club meeting.
"Basically, one of the booster parents said, 'Wouldn't it be neat if we could just play the fight song and the school song for them?'" Mauldin said.
The idea of helping out hit the right note for the band members, and Mauldin said he expects 180 to 190 of the 213 band members show up Friday.
Practicing the fight and school songs for the first time Thursday, band members said volunteering to play was the right thing to do.
"There's a lot of people that have nothing," drum major Chloe Luna said. "And I want to be able to say I made their life normal for even a few minutes."
Mauldin said the band boosters are also raising money for Rockport-Fulton's band program to help with the loss of sheet music, uniforms and instruments. They hope to collect $5,000 in all.
