Most football players, as they watch the clock tick down to halftime, can look forward to a moment of relative tranquility. They can anticipate taking a load off after a grueling period of pummeling and being pummeled, and for about 15 minutes, the only aggression they might expect is that of an agitated coach.
But for varsity starter Nick White, halftime offers no such respite. As it begins, the offensive guard doesn’t join his teammates in the locker room for a breather. Instead, he strips off his shoulder pads, grabs his sousaphone — the marching band version of the tuba — and heads back onto the field, this time not to block enormous defensive players, but to play in the halftime show. Then it’s a jog to the locker room to get caught up on any strategic briefings he might have missed, don the shoulder guards again, and get back into the fray.
If this sounds like a hectic way to spend a Friday night, you should hear about the rest of his “normal” week.
“Every day, my whole day is completely taken up,” says White. “When I’m not at band or football practice in the mornings and afternoons, I’m doing homework or I’m sleeping.”
White says, almost as an afterthought, that he also wrestles for the school team and does volunteer work in the community.
Despite the seemingly grueling nature of White’s days, he wishes it could have been this way his entire high school career. White first became involved with band in sixth grade as a euphonium player. Since then, he says, music has been his greatest love. But for most of high school, White has been unable to play in the marching band, sacrificing that activity for football.
“The last football coach didn’t want me playing tuba, because he wanted me to focus on football,” White says. “So I had to sort of put the tuba away for a little while.”
But Coach Scott Smith, who took the reins of the team a year ago, decided White was capable of handling both responsibilities, and this season has let him branch out.
“It’s a huge commitment he’s taken up,” Smith says. “Most kids have trouble being in football and maintaining their grades. But he’s in football and band, and academically he’s sound … And on the field, we’re fortunate to have him. His performance is still top-notch.”
It wasn’t just the coaching staff White had to convince; being part of the Lake Highlands High School band requires just as much hard work and commitment. So White sought out band director Jeff Bradford at the end of last school year, who agreed to hear White out.
“After talking for a while, I decided to let him back in, and he came over the summer and worked on getting back up to speed on his tuba,” Bradford says. “Nick is a wonderful young man with a very bright future.”
Now in his final year of high school, White said he’s looking ahead to college, where he hopes to major in music education. He will teach band one day, he says, but who knows — with his skills at and affection for football, maybe he’ll be helping out on the sidelines in more ways than one.
