Teens too big for band britches

Take a peek inside the closet in the band room at University High School, and you may find a few uniforms with missing buttons.

The 13-year-old crimson and gold suits used for marching band performances are a little worn and maybe outdated, but mostly they need to be replaced because they don’t fit a student population getting bigger each year.

“When we measured up kids for the right sizes (13 years ago), they were a whole lot smaller than they are now,” said Keith Nielsen, U-High band teacher. “I have tons of coats that would fit seventh- and eighth-grade students but will not fit juniors and seniors.”

“We have some coats that we are just squeezing kids into,” Nielsen said.

It is a problem echoed in other Spokane area high schools, where uniforms made for students 10 to 15 years ago are too small for today’s teens.

“That is the identical problem that I am having right now,” said Collins Loupe, a teacher at North Central High School.

North Central’s uniforms are also 12 to 13 years old, but only two-thirds of the band students can wear them.

“The other one-third isn’t being used because they are too small,” Loupe said.

He isn’t sure he’ll have enough uniforms to outfit everyone for the Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight Parade in May.

“Ours are probably due to be replaced anyway, but mostly our kids are so big compared with what they used to be,” Loupe said.

Pants are too short because students are taller. Coats tear because boys have broader shoulders. And, youths are simply larger compared with their peers 10 years ago.

“There is a huge push nationally on exercise and diet,” Loupe said. “I mean, even McDonald’s has salads. You can’t watch television without seeing an ad for exercise or health.”

According to a 1999-2002 survey by the National Center for Health Statistics, an estimated 16 percent of children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are overweight. That is a 45 percent increase from an estimate of 11 percent taken from a 1988-1994 survey.

In Washington state, 21 percent of high school students are overweight.

“Or it could just be that when they took the measurements for my school they must have had unusually small people here that year,” Loupe said. “Between those two things, I’m sunk.”

The cost of replacing marching band uniforms can be overwhelming.

A school could pay anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 to outfit an entire band, depending on the style and whether the coats are made of pure wool fabric or a mix of wool and other less-expensive fabric, like polyester.

Shadle Park High School replaced its 12-year-old uniforms last fall for about $20,000.

“And we thought we were getting a good deal,” said Kevin Hartse, Shadle Park band director.

In his 27 years at the school, two sets of uniforms have been purchased.

“The uniforms I bought (in 1992) would fit a middle school band now,” Hartse said.

For North Central, which has the second-highest percentage of students taking free and reduced lunch – 43 percent – coming up with that kind of money to replace uniforms would be difficult.

“Obviously, my parents aren’t going to be able to raise that kind of money,” Loupe said. “I have a problem raising money for something the schools should probably provide anyway. You have a generation of students who will come and do the work that they are never going to benefit from.”

Like many high school marching bands, U-High has two major fund-raisers each year organized by the parents to help offset the costs of competition and travel, some miscellaneous equipment like flags, and in many cases, new uniforms.

“Whatever the school and the district don’t cover, we cover,” said Karen Schatz, the president of the University High School Band and Color Guard Parent Association. “I think we end up paying over two-thirds of the expenses.”

When the district rebuilt both University and Central Valley High School in 2002, it paid to replace the tuxedos used for indoor performances for about $45,000 to $50,000 per school.

At U-High, the school colors also changed slightly when the new school opened, from a more red crimson to a maroon, so the current marching band uniforms don’t match.

“It’s very noticeable when we go out on the field that ours don’t match what everyone else (like the football team) switched to,” Nielsen said.

The U-High parent association helped raise enough funds to replace the pants last summer, for about $6,000. It needs about $19,000 to replace the coats, hats, gloves, and gauntlets, hopefully by next year.

The band has about 75 members, but the parent association purchased 100 pants and plans to buy 100 coats in various sizes to accommodate the changing size of students.

“What we’re trying to do is get uniforms that cover 100 different sizes, instead of just enough to fit the current band,” Schatz said. “We’re looking for not just today, but what we are going to need later on.”