Pub. 54 2013-2014 Issue 4

29 2014 SUMMER  A TIME TO REFLECT — CONTINUED ON PAGE 29 the football team has five state football championships, this may go on for sixteen weeks. The Band has its honors also. They have won best in show for their competitions and their last two trips to the Texas State UIL Band Finals resulted in a top ten and top fifteen finish against much larger bands in Texas. That said, every well-oiled machine has its moments and that moment happened on September 26, 2013 when the Lake Travis Cavaliers traveled to House Park Stadium to play Austin High. There was a light rain in the first half and the field turf was showing a little sheen when the LTMarching Band took the field. Their performance started perfectly, just as it had every time before, when the unthinkable happened. As they were marching backwards, one of the tuba players lost his footing on the slick turf and fell. The others also marching backwards did not see him until one by one they all fell and we had the Seven Tuba Pile-up (which can be seen on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=STB7PsAHqj4.) No one was injured and they quickly got back into position, but the band had to replace two tubas. That video went viral. It has had over 1,750,000 views. Ev- eryone was talking about the Lake Travis Band. The video was shown on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Good Morning America and others. In February, the Lake Travis Band Director, Richard Hicks was contacted by the staff of Good Morning America. They ex- plained that they were going to have a segment entitledThe Great GMA Do-Over and they wanted the Lake Travis Band to be the first do-over on February 24, 2014. Good Morning America was flying to Austin, along with Jonathan Waters, the Band Director of The Ohio State Marching Band which is known as “the best damn band in the land,” two days before the show. Mr. Waters would then introduce to the Lake Travis Band a new march that would be performed live on GMA to over six million viewers. So that Saturday and Sunday before their biggest moment ever, the band spent all of their free time learning the music to Bruno Mars’ song, Locked Out of Heaven, and learned all of the steps to a new marching performance. They practiced all Saturday and Sunday and then went back to the school on Monday morning at 4:30 am to get in a few more practices before appearing live on national television. The stands were packed early with family, friends and fellow students to give their support. Everyone was rewarded with a flawless performance. Good Morning America was ecstatic and presented the Band with a large trophy for making the Seven Tuba Pile-up only a memory. You can see the performance at http:// abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/texas-marching-band-epic-fail- great-gma-22646648. Justin Ploch and the Lake Travis Cavalier Band…one of the hardest working bands in Texas.  Albert Ploch has been TADA’s Vice President for Finance and Systems for 15 years. His expertise has been instrumental in the creation of TADA’s secure financial base and the development of the TADA Headquarters building complex. Besides their award winning band member, Justin, Albert and his wife, Jackie, are parents of Texas State University sophomore Albert, Jr. who is currently a summer intern in his Dad’s department at TADA.