During every home football game for the past year, Franklin High School (FHS) Band Director Daniel Ball has taken to the field and climbed a platform during the national anthem. He managed the marching band for the last time at the existing Panther Pit during the Nov. 1 home game against Pisgah High School. Next year, he will be working with the marching band on a brand-new field. (See Christopher Hedden’s article on The Pit in this edition.)
Known as “Mr. B” by teachers and students, Ball has been the band director at FHS since July 2023. Born in Knoxville, Tenn., he moved to Franklin from Pittsboro, N.C. He went to Western Carolina University and studied in the music education program. During the program, a college internship arose in the fall of 2016 for Ball to work alongside former FHS band director Buddy Huckabee. That was Ball’s first exposure to Franklin.
During the internship, Ball learned from Huckabee that an elementary music teacher position was open at East Franklin and Cartoogechaye Elementary schools. He took it. Just a few short years later, he was also asked to fill Huckabee’s shoes and oversee the FHS marching band.
Ball admitted that forming a marching band show for the new school year is not easy. The band is not an audition-based group and Ball encourages anyone who has a love for music to join. Selecting each season’s marching band starts early – usually right after the previous season ends. And, preparation and training for each new school year begins in July, along with a band camp that lasts two and a half weeks.
Fundamentals for readying a marching band, according to Ball, includes learning how to march properly, focusing on a specific musical sound, and presenting selected themes. The band learns to perform their halftime show, and that routine is also played and performed at competitions in September and October.
One of the greatest challenges of overseeing a high school marching band is “unexpected things,” said Ball. “Missing too many people can mess up practice. And, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, half of the competitions were canceled.”
However, there are high points, he said.
“I’ve rarely met a group that works harder and is more united than band students. They can be incredibly diverse and have different interests inside the band, but they are united with their love of music and joy of the activity. I love their camaraderie, whether it is on the bus laughing to and from games and competitions or seeing them have fun and joke around during the breaks in rehearsal. I find myself so thankful that this is my job; I get to make music with students.”
Currently the marching band has about 70 members. FHS band member and senior Rylee Burke shared that her favorite thing about Ball is, “how he listens to us outside of band about anything that might be going on in our lives, whether it be good, bad, or completely irrelevant. He still cares about having that connection with his students.”