The longtime band director of a northwestern Iowa high school is retiring this month and his band’s final march could set a new world’s record. Steve Connell is in his last days as director of the Pride of the Dutchmen Marching Band at M-O-C-Floyd Valley Senior High School in Orange City. At this weekend’s tulip festival, all previous band members are being invited to return to march and play.
After 42 years of waving the baton, Connell is retiring at month’s end, so this will be his final time leading the marching band comprised of current students and alumni.
Based on the cards, letters, emails, phone calls and social media postings, Connell says this year’s band will be like none other and will include many hundreds, perhaps thousands of his former students. He says it could set a new world’s record for pick-up marching band performances.
That song is known as “Championship” and it was originally used on the CBS-TV program “NFL Today” some four decades ago. Connell says the alumni band is a wonderful tradition that’s been enjoyed for decades.
The big band is scheduled to march down Orange City’s Central Avenue at 6:30 P-M Saturday to close out the city’s annual Tulip Festival.
