Schmidt and his impact on the band
February 21, 2020
McKenna Coyle
THE MIRROR
Stevens Point Area Senior High (SPASH) band students for the last 31 years have been fortunate enough to have an amazing band teacher in the district. Brad Schmidt has been directing all of the SPASH bands since 1989 and has enjoyed every single year of it.
“I started my band career off in junior high playing clarinet and then saxophone in high school for jazz. Later in high school, I started playing trumpet to demonstrate being louder for the band. When I was in junior high, I could play pretty well on trombone and euphonium and a little bit of flute but then I branched out a bit. I decided that I liked music so much that I just kept going on with it and did it in college, too.”
Schmidt is one of those teachers that it just would not be the same when he decides to retire from teaching high school band. People believe that he really has made an amazing impact at this school. With Schmidt being in the district for 31 years already, some people wonder when he will make the decision to step down from his position as the SPASH band director.
“Well, I don’t know when I want to be done, at least until my kids are out of school. My youngest daughter is in seventh grade right now so that will be at least another five years and I guess we will see after that.”
Every year, under the direction of Schmidt the SPASH jazz band does a Jazz Night Club at the Moose Family Center in Stevens Point. February 20 is this year’s Jazz Night Club and Schmidt always works hard with his jazz students to make sure they are prepared.
“Each year we have a turnout of a couple of hundred people usually and this year we printed off 200 tickets but we always have to make more. I have been working with my jazz students a lot for this event and it is always a crazy time of the year. I have prepared 20 songs for them to play and we will have soloists that have been working extremely hard on their pieces.”
As the years go on, it almost seems like kids are losing interest in being a part of a high school band and that may be true but for the band kids, it is the best part of their day when they get to walk through those band doors and grab their instrument and feel a part of a family, and thanks to Schmidt, it is one of the reasons that it is so hard to leave high school after senior year.
Mazie Maluka • Mar 9, 2020 at 1:07 PM
I really loved how focused your article was. You wrote a lot about who Schmidt is as a teacher with just enough bias to make me want to take his class. I know a lot of my friends in band really enjoyed his classes.
Kaitlyn Flanagan • Mar 8, 2020 at 10:36 PM
I liked the way you set up your article because it was very easy to read. You have a lot of good details. I never knew about the Jazz night club either and it was cool to learn a little about that.
Wyatt Cornell • Mar 4, 2020 at 5:06 PM
I am surprised that Schmidt has been at SPASH for 31 years. I like that you included a lot of quotes from him.
Larson Lewis • Mar 2, 2020 at 8:38 AM
I didn’t know they had a jazz band night at the Moose Family Center and I liked how you talked about what got him into band and how he started.
Erich Vanblargan • Feb 27, 2020 at 1:58 PM
I can relate to wondering how Spash will be without Mr.Scmidt as it is always a blast in the band class no matter the day. There are few men who can enjoy their day as Mr. Scmidt as he rarely has a down day. I do however feel that you could include more of the events Mr.Schmidt does as there are more than just the night at the moose lodge.
Brian Kraege • Feb 27, 2020 at 1:41 PM
The number of quotes and how they’re used to give information that would usually be told somewhere else in the story is a nice touch.
Kenny Schultz • Feb 27, 2020 at 1:30 PM
I really liked that Mr. Schmidt had been in the jazz band in high school and carried in on to college. It was cool to hear about all the different instruments he has played.dd
Noah Viegut • Feb 26, 2020 at 1:39 PM
I didn’t know that Schmidt has been here for 31 years. I liked getting to hear all the classes that he teaches.