After teaching at Parkway West High School for 10 years, band teacher Ben Pyatt told principal Jeremy Mitchell that he would be resigning to be with his wife and kids in Tampa, FL.

“I was shocked. I thought, What? When. Oh, no! But after I slept on it, I realized I didn’t want to separate a family,”  Mitchell said.

Once he had heard the news, Mitchell took action to try to fill the position before the start of school. After a few days without hearing from any candidates, he reached out further.

“I told Doug Hoover, Central High’s band director. Mr. Hoover then posted an announcement to a statewide board of band directors telling people about the opening,” Mitchell said. “Within a couple weeks, 27 people had applied for the position. Mr.[Brad] Wallace ended up being our first interviewee.”

When his interview had finished, though it was the first of seven, all five of the interviewers almost unanimously decided that it would be a shame to let such a great opportunity walk out the door. Wallace was then offered the job.

“I had an opportunity to stay at the University of Illinois and keep my assistantship, but I decided to come here because it seemed like a great opportunity and I wanted to teach high school again,” Wallace said.

Though he already had experience teaching high school in Effingham, IL, he admitted to having doubts moving into the job on such short notice.

“Entering into the job, I was concerned with trying to understand the history and traditions of the program, and then build upon them,” he said. “The one thing I didn’t want to do was to change everything around after it had been set. I mean, I didn’t want to force feed new drum cadences, or technique, or pep music into the band because that would just make everyone miserable.”

Wallace was not the only person who held concerns switching band teachers on such short notice.

“It’s definitely difficult because our show has already been influenced by Pyatt and had his input, and now it has to be transitioned between directors as well, a whole new way of learning and a whole new opinion on band are being implemented by [Wallace],” senior Sam Merriman said, as drum major of the marching band.

However, all of the students involved in band, especially Merriman, were positive going into the situation. Band members were excited to see how the band program would evolve with a new instructor.

“I think the band program is going to become a lot more involved with the school as a whole especially with POMs, cheer and basketball because of how willing and open Wallace is to new ideas to expand the program,” Merriman said.

Wallace would like to be able to see the band program change in the coming future.

“I just hope to create a culture of excellence in the band program so that the students are proud to be a part of it and grow the band program because of it,” Wallace said.