The Glen Lake Band program rocked the stadium during Glen Lake football games all season as students prepare for the upcoming concert season in the winter.
Glen Lake band director Elaina Abarrak has been leading the charge for the marching Lakers, along with an eager group of freshmen and sophomores who are taking the reins and making the program their own.
“It’s my first year of teaching. Everyone tells you it’s always hard, but the students are very flexible,” Abarrak said. “Every day I wake up and I’m glad that I am here. It’s an amazing opportunity and I feel so lucky every single day that this is the position that I landed. I feel really, really fortunate.”
Some of the sophomore leaders of the senior-less program include Imogen Thompson, Trey Arnold, Skylar Jackson, Silas Peacock, and Aiden Doher of nearly 30 band representatives.
Arnold and Jackson are both drum majors for the marching Lakers.
“(My favorite aspect of the band) is hanging out with people. I do enjoy playing with the band a lot, but I enjoy hanging out with the people. Playing with them specifically is more the reason why I try to enjoy it.” Arnold said and Jackson added. “Between marching band and concert band, I don’t have one that’s my favorite, in my opinion, one’s not better than the other. They’re both really cool,” Arnold said.
The new and improved marching Lakers are happy to have the chance to march while playing through several musical sets on Friday nights.
“The organization this year has been really good compared to past years. It feels like we’re actually learning things and progressing, and just the energy from the people in the band has been really good lately. It feels like everyone’s just enjoying playing and being around each other … The energy is really nice to see,” Thompson said.
The goal of this group of sophomores is to continue growing and striving to new heights where the band can attend high school band festivals and compete for high honors.
“I would love to see growth wise and more respect towards the band as a group because we are so small,” Thompson said.
Abbarak is in her first year teaching band after graduating from Northern Michigan University in the spring. The Kingsley native completed her student teaching at Manistee High School under Andrea Mack, who inspired her to continue her passion.
“I want the kids to have fun in the long term. I can see us bringing the program to a point where we have freshmen through seniors eventually. This year was their first year ever playing and marching at the same time for this particular group of students,” Abbarak said. “I could have easily stepped back and done what we have done before. I knew they were ready for that kind of challenge and they rose to it. They had an amazing show this year (at Homecoming and playoff games) because of all the hard work that they do.”
The band program was resurrected in 2020 after nearly two decades without one.
