How Houston County’s band, cheer and football programs build a strong connection around Friday night lights

WARNER ROBINS — Typically, extracurricular practices are done in isolation. The football team takes the field, the band takes the music room and the cheerleaders take the gym. 

But on Thursday, all three Houston County High School programs stepped into each other’s shoes and practiced together to understand how each team contributes to the magic of the Friday night lights.

When Houston County head football coach Jeremy Edwards arrived in 2022, there was some animosity with the band program. But that has changed over the last five years with these practices, where they do real exercises from each program.

“I think it really helps bring the programs closer together, especially having them actually do the things in every single program,” said senior head drum major Madyson Polisero. “It gives them a perspective, what it’s like to be in that group.”

All three groups agree: they had no idea how many hours the others put in.

“I didn’t realize [the band] did eight hour days. They’re here before us some days and they leave at like, six to seven,” said junior quarterback Ryan Maxwell.

Olivia Darnell, a senior in the cheer program, found herself lucky to stay out of the heat.

“I find myself really grateful that I picked an indoor sport,” Darnell said with a laugh. “I know they practice for like five hours every morning out there in the heat on the field, and I wouldn’t want to do that. Especially marching around and holding heavy instruments.”

The event starts with football players running band students and cheerleaders through various drills. For the band, specifically, it introduces a level of physicality they’re not as accustomed to.

“Band kids, we don’t really get as much physical activity as football or cheerleaders do,” Polisero said. “So when you put them in there, they know what it’s like to be as if they were on the field…Same thing with [the others], what it’s like to have performed, hold an instrument the right way, how precise we have to be as a performance group.”

Maxwell and other football players learned the precision required to march in step and hold instruments and their bodies at the right angles.

“It was a lot of work, especially with the band doing all the steps and stuff. It takes a lot of practice and effort to get that perfected,” Maxwell said.

At the end, the cheerleaders taught a couple of cheers and stunts, and football players took turns doing backflips.

Overall, the experience has brought the programs much closer together. There’s no animosity to be had at Houston County High School.

“I think all four years it’s helped us get to know band, especially, a little bit more,” Darnell said. “I think we interact with football a lot more because we’re on the field with them…We talk to [the band] all the time [from] far away, and ask them to play songs, but we don’t really know what they’re doing until we get out there and do it.”

Maxwell appreciates the chance to see what other work goes into the Friday night lights.

“[The] football program works so hard, and all the other programs, they’re out here for like eight hour days. They put in so much work for Friday nights,” Maxwell said. “It’s just great to bond with them and to get and see what they have to do to get prepared for Friday nights just like us.”