This history behind the “Mighty Band from Lion Land” is a long one of excellence. Mr. Carl Major is the current Director of Bands at Foley High School.  He was there five years then left for six before coming back.  He’s been back five years and has the band going strong.  When he left, there were 230 students in the band.  When he returned, there was 70.  The band program was still great, but a lot less students were involved.  “The quantity of it had changed but not the quality,” said Mr. Major.  He has built the numbers back up since he’s been back, and last year they marched 220 students in the band. 

One of the reasons students really want to get involved is because they want to show a lot of school spirit.   They also make it fun for the kids.  It’s very competitive, but with lots of rules and standards.  “Kids sometimes say they don’t want to do things, but they ultimately want to belong to something that means something to them and that they get something out of.”  They like belonging to the band and being a part of something successful and fun.  They practice two days a week for two hours after school in the fall.  He is proud of the students and said they get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time.  They work very hard.  They always strive for entertainment value too.   The band program offers something unique that other classes can’t offer.

Mr. Major said, "People really enjoy the programs they perform and want to get involved and stay involved with helping the band.  The band recently played their spring concerts.  All the beginner bands and middle school bands are invited to play in it each year."  He said, "You get to see the progression that the kids make over time in their playing because of the differences in the ages.  They get some beginners at the high school level, but most band members started in sixth grade." 

They allow anyone to join the band and have a place for them somewhere.  That’s what makes their band unique too.  “I’m not here for me.  I’m here for the students,” he said.  He tells his students to work hard for scholarships so they don’t have to pay out the money for their education.

They have summer programs and during the month of July they have different camps for the band.  He said they probably spend about three weeks of their summer at the school, so the kids sacrifice their time off from school to be a part of the band.  They are very organized.  The itinerary for the dates of summer camp goes out the December beforehand so the parents can plan for their kids to be able to be there.  “There’s a lot of time involved.”

“It costs an awful lot of money for us to run this program.”  They depend a lot on sponsors to keep the program going.  The money that sponsors donate makes less for the kids to have to earn doing fundraisers, which takes more of their time and energy.  They take a lot of school buses to football games and charter buses to contests.  They have to raise even more money for a trip year.  Next year they are taking a trip to the opening ceremonies of Daytona 500.  In previous years, they’ve been to Chicago for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, Texas for the Fiesta Flambeau and the Rose Bowl.  They try to do a fun trip every other year, and it keeps the kids motivated.

Mr. Major was in band in high school.  He graduated from Southern Miss with a full music scholarship and then taught in Tennessee and Florida.  His wife is from Fairhope, so they visited often to see family.  They also loved visiting the beach when they were here, so he thought it would be neat to teach in the area.  The job at Foley High School happened to be available, and when he applied, he got the job.  “The rest is history.” 

Mr. Major and his family loves the area.  He left the school for a few years when his children were really young.  He decided he needed to spend more time being “Dad,” so his family moved to Brewton and he taught there for six years.  They still came back regularly to visit with family, and the job reopened at Foley High School.  The principle, who had stayed in touch with him over the years, called him to say “Come back home” and he did.

“Music is in our family.”  He said they give their kids the option but don’t push music on them.  His kids, Madison, 13, Carson, 11, and Grayson, 10, are all either in band or will start band soon.  He said they like what their parents do and want to be a part of it.  “It’s in our blood.”  His wife Amanda is a musician as well.  She played in Fairhope High School’s band when she was in school and went to college on a music scholarship.  She chose to go into law, and then became a mom before settling into teaching. 

He also teaches a lot of things outside the classroom that has to do with music.  He writes for a music publishing company in Orlando, Florida.  He’s been writing for them about ten years and has 200 band and percussion arrangements published.  He also writes drill for a lot of bands in the state, including universities.  It keeps him busy and on top of things he said.

As for being the Director of Bands at Foley High School he said, “I like working with the students.  Every day is a new day.  Sometimes we couldn’t make up the things that happen here, you know?”  They try to think like the students and find out what motivates them and makes them want to be involved.  “It’s a unique challenge every day…No one’s born a leader.  It’s something you have to teach.”  He said they teach the kids that there is no one person in the program that is more important than anyone else.  “If one link of that chain is broke, we’re not going to be heading in the right way.”

“Education has changed as we know it.”  He said that kids are different these days.  They grow up in a fast food society where everything is immediate.  When they don’t get the immediate response they have come to expect, they don’t know what to do.  Educators teach them it’s okay to wait a little longer to get the outcome.  The have to teach them patience, time management and politeness.  He said some of the best compliments he gets about the band are not just about their performance, but when they are at competitions and his students stand up and clap for the other bands.  He said that people notice and it makes the smaller bands feel so special.  He gets compliments like that every year.  He is very proud of his students.  “That’s the biggest compliment I can get, outside of any trophy we’ve ever won, is to let me know what my students are doing when no one’s watching.  That’s the definition of character right there.”