Gallaudet University H igh School Academic Bowl

How ironic. I read Gwinnett Daily post from time to time to catch up on news in areas around Gwinnett county where I used to live in two different towns, Duluth and Norcross, Georgia. And then I came across this bit of news today.

Berkmar High will host the 2007 Gallaudet University High School Academic Bowl for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, Southeast Region, from 2 to 10 p.m. Thursday to Sunday. This is the first time a public school has been selected to host an Academic Bowl in the Southeast. A team from Berkmar will compete.

What is so surprising? Well, I attended Berkmar High as a freshman before transferring to Duluth High for my sophomore, junior and senior years. Berkmar High was where I joined the high school marching band as a drummer since I played the drums and xylophone throughout my middle school symphony band years. Only this time at Berkmar I played the bass drum (see the above picture) for the marching band while I played the snare drum and xylophone for the Berkmar high school symphony band. During the summer months right before I became a freshman I had to practice my marching positions with the rest of the marching band while we played our pieces accordingly in order to get ready for our high school football games just like this video of the Berkmar high school marching band in the bleachers. Ah, memories! In fact, the summer months were so hot and humid we sometime had to stay in one position for quite awhile which caused one guy to faint cause he purposely locked his knees and more and less tried to take a snooze that way. Not only did I play in the marching and symphony band, my marching band team travelled to Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to compete in marching band competitions. We did fairly well and were proud of our accomplishments. It was kind of fun. We go and march while the rest of the students had to stay behind and study.

I wonder how many deaf/hh high school students played an instrument in the marching and/or symphony band? Surely, I cannot be the only one here.