by David C. Barnett
Young quarterbacks and defensive linemen across Northeast Ohio have spent recent weeks shaking off the summer cobwebs, but area marching bands are also gearing up to hit the playing field.
Members of the Shaw High School Cardinal marching band are thundering into the school's East Cleveland parking lot to prepare for the season's first game against the Warren G. Harding Raiders in Warren.
"These kids, they've been here all summer long," says band director Donshon Wilson, who's a former Cardinal drummer himself. The band has a formidable reputation among its roughly 200 peers across the state, having won over 100 trophies over the past decade under Wilson's leadership. They're known for a bright, brassy sound and a flashy dance team.
"Our job is to keep the crowd excited and hyped up," says Wilson. "And if the crowd is cheering, they're roaring the team on, also."
The band is even known beyond Ohio's borders --- they were one of five American bands that played in China in 2008 and they performed for President Obama two years later. But Donshon Wilson says his musicians know that job number one is back home, boosting team spirit at halftime, every Friday night. And Wilson thinks the Cardinal Band also puts the other team's band on notice.
"Everyone knows that they definitely have to get ready for Shaw High School," he smiles.
In addition to its work on the playing field, this season, the Cardinal band's taking music on the road to Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, before ending the year at Mardi Gras.
