In 1981 a change in leadership was taking place in the band department. On July 14, Superintendent Earl Blemker announced that the board had hired Gary Fields as the new director for the Marching Woodmen. Greenwood’s new director would be available on August 1. Fields’ undergraduate and graduate degrees are from Indiana State University. He was an assistant director at Knox and Owen Valley High Schools before being named head director at Brownsburg. Fields was instrumental in building the Brownsburg band into a competitive organization before he made the move to Jasper High School in 1978. The Jasper band was well known at Greenwood and Gary had used Greenwood’s facilities for practices prior to the State Fair Band Day contests.

Director Gary Fields

Gary was also familiar with current and former Greenwood staff. “I knew Herman [Knoll] from Indiana State and followed his progress,” he said. While Gary was at Owen Valley High School in the mid 70’s, he knew Pam (Smith) Wishmeyer as she was teaching just 10 miles away at Edgewood High School in Ellettsville.

Superintendent Blemker noted that there would be a new division of duties after the marching season. Assistant Director Mike Sweeney would oversee the Symphonic Band and the Jazz Band while Director Fields would handle the Wind Ensemble. That same division remains to this day. While it would be ‘all hands on deck’ during marching season, the new split in duties would allow Fields and Sweeney to focus on specific areas of instruction. It would also allow the high school staff more time to interact with the middle school. In 1969, Dan Rice was hired as the first director at Greenwood Middle School. Prior to that, there was a single director in charge of both high school and middle school programs. That included both concert band as well as jazz band. So, staffing literally doubled with Dan Rice’s arrival. But, Rice said that with his hiring came specific instructions from the administration on boundaries. “I was hired as the middle school band director and [regarding interaction with the high school program] they told me never the twain shall meet.” And that separation was maintained for over a decade. In 1978, GHS Assistant Director Kim Fillingim was allowed to teach a few classes at the middle school. The division continued to slowly erode as the administration saw the benefits of more integration between middle school and high school programs and staff. Having younger band students work early with the high school directors eased their transition into the marching band.

By 1981, it was decided to clearly define the high school directors’ duties and allow Gary Fields to teach at the middle school during the day. Director Fields also noted that it maintained “consistency of the program from middle school through high school.” This set up a friendly rivalry. Gary’s wife Samantha was Center Grove’s middle school band director. Samantha let it be known (jokingly) that she believed Center Grove would outperform Greenwood. Gary said he had other ideas.

A literal merging of northern and southern Indiana took place in 1981. The north and south associations that developed and sponsored the state-level competitions for marching, orchestras and choirs decided to formally join. The Northern Indiana School Band, Orchestra, and Vocal Association (NISBOVA) and the Indiana School Music Association (ISMA) had jointly sponsored the State March-Off competitions since 1973. Now the two would merge into the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA). The structure of the competition season remained the same. Bands competed at one of seven district sites. The best in each class would proceed to the preliminary round in Terre Haute. Each class would compete at a different location in the prelims – generally one class at ISU and the others spread among three high schools; Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South and Terre Haute West Vigo. The top five in each class would then compete in the evening finals at ISU on Hulman Field.

The Marching Woodmen pondered how they would finish their season. But, first things first. The band’s fall fundraiser this year was selling magazine subscriptions as well as record albums and tapes.

Drum Majors Don Bright, Kurt Knight and Missy Nix were sporting new white uniforms at their first contest of the season. They won first place in Class A at the Kokomo-Haworth Invitational on September 26. Greenwood also won captions for best percussion, auxiliary, winds and drum major. Next up was the ISSMA district competition October 3 at Columbus East High School. Greenwood won their slot in the first ISSMA State Finals. Pam Smith’s Irish Guard won captions for best rifles and flags.

1981 – October 3 ISSMA District competition at Columbus East High School

The 2nd Greenwood Invitational was October 10. Participating this year were Center Grove, Perry Meridian, Beech Grove, Warren Central, New Castle, Bloomington South, Western Boone and Connersville. Center Grove won 1st place along with captions for best marching, music, flag corps and drum major.

1981 – October 24 – Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro Contest of Champions

Greenwood returned to Murfreesboro for their fifth appearance at the Contest of Champions on October 24. They advanced to finals and were awarded their third 6th place finish.

1981 – October 24 – Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro Contest of Champions

The following Saturday, on Halloween, the Marching Woodmen took the field at ISU for ISSMA State Finals. With a show featuring the Finale of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony, La Fiesta and Lady / She Believes in Me, Greenwood won 4th place in Class A competition.

1981 – October 31 – ISSMA State Finals at ISU – 4th place in class A – Missy Nix, Indiana TV personality Jim Gerard, Don Bright & Kurt Knight

Director Gary Fields

In the spring of 1982, the Irish Guard prepared a complex show with the group dressed as toy soldiers. The complexity required a lot of “cleaning” to perfect the choreography. Pam Smith pushed the guard harder and the effort was rewarded with a first place finish in Class A. Pam said, “Due to the drive and determination of the senior class, we pulled off the title of the Indiana Military and Mixed Finals Champions.” Senior guard member Kathy Gabehart said, “The Irish Guard Class of 1982 are very proud to be leaving Greenwood Community High School as State Champs. We would like to thank Ms. Smith for a season we will long remember.”

1982 Irish Guard state champion patch

Select members from the top 10 bands at ISSMA Marching State Finals participated in the 1982 Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade as members of the Hook’s Indiana All-State Marching Band. Center Grove Director Tom Dirks selected Angela Fenimore (who rode on the Hook’s float preceding the band), David Adams and Rick Brown. Greenwood Director Gary Fields selected Jim Haskell, Kim Kelly and Jenny Mitchell. Jenny would accompany Miss Fenimore on the Hook’s float. Director Fields said Greenwood was honored to participate as members of the All-State band. All participants in the Hook’s band received a commemorative jacket.

The Indiana State Fair band day competition was once the largest state-wide marching competition. In the mid 60’s, there were often over 70 bands who competed annually. When ISMA and NISBOVA began their combined all-state march-off competition in 1973, it began to pull competitors away from the fair. When the two associations merged into ISSMA, more bands left the fair. And it all made sense. The fair’s track show was only a short 5 minutes and had to be performed in a restrictively small area. The ISSMA competitions allowed a longer, drum-corps-style show and provided an entire football field of space. So, it’s no surprise that only 31 bands were competing in the 1982 State Fair Band Day. And, none of the five Johnson County bands would be there. Gary Fields explained, “It is difficult to compete successfully in two different types of contests. It’s like the difference between football and volleyball. You move around a lot in both but they are not closely related.” Whiteland Director John Willman agreed. To compete in both the State Fair and ISSMA events “…the band would have to practice all summer for that one performance and then would need to hurriedly learn new routines [for the ISSMA season].”

The State Fair actually considered changing their competition format to a field show, but had to admit they did not have the proper facilities to accommodate the switch. They next changed some rules to try to entice bands back. They split competitors into two classes by size and increased performance time to 6 minutes. But the changes did little to persuade bands back. Willman said,”To miss the Terre Haute band contest (ISSMA Finals) because of the State Fair would be similar to a final four basketball team pulling out of the state tournament to play in another tourney.”

The Greenwood school system hired a new assistant band director for the 1982-1983 school year who would be very ‘instrumental’ in the near future. Pun intended. Jon Sutton is a New Castle native and received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Ball State. He began his music instruction career at Knightstown in 1973. In 1977 he became band director at Lebanon High School. Sutton’s wife Peggy also joined the Greenwood staff as a music teacher at Southwest Elementary.

1982 – Jon Sutton

The 1982 competition season began on October 2 with a return to Columbus East High School for ISSMA District competition. Greenwood took 5 trophies and the only Division One rating in Class A. In addition to Best Drum Majors for Don Bright, Becky Mellencamp and Missy Nix, Greenwood also won captions for best music, marching and general effect.

The Greenwood Invitational continued to grow. The third, annual event was on October 9 and featured participants from Yorktown, Perry Meridian, Bloomington South, Shenandoah, Warren Central, Lawrence North, Whiteland, New Castle, Center Grove and the ISU Band in exhibition.

1982 – October 16 – Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro Contest of Champions

On October 16 Greenwood made their final trip down to Murfreesboro in what would ultimately be a disappointing competition. Greenwood did not make the finals round and finished 14th overall. That bad luck would follow the Marching Woodmen to ISSMA State Finals in Terre Haute the following weekend. Greenwood’s preliminary performance was at ISU at 10:00am. Greenwood did not advance to the finals round.

The band finished their season with a different Tennessee road trip on November 6-7. They competed in their first Marching Bands of America contest. The MBA competition began in 1975 with a Summer National Championship contest in Wisconsin. The contest morphed into the Grand National Championships and relocated to Florida by 1980. Then, from 1981 – 1983, the Grand Nats were held at Eastern Tennessee State University in Johnson City. The organization shortened their name to Bands of America (BOA) in 1984 and found a new home in Indianapolis at the Hoosier Dome. Except for two years in the late 80’s, the BOA Grand Nats have remained in Indianapolis to this day. Unfortunately, Greenwood did not advance past the preliminary round.

The energy of the marching season shifted toward spring competition for the Irish Guard. Up until 1982, the winter guard competition season was sponsored by a variety of local schools. Most felt an association was needed to provide structure and consistency. Greenwood Guard Director Pam Smith shared that opinion and joined with other directors to form the Indiana High School Color Guard Association. The first IHSCGA competition season was spring of 1983. There were six contests followed by a state championship held at Greenwood. The original guard classes were A and AA. The number of classes would constantly evolve throughout the years. The Irish Guard earned 4th place in their first IHSCGA State Finals.

1983- Irish Guard

The Irish Guard also performed in Market Square Arena at the opening ceremony of the IHSAA Girls State Basketball Finals on February 26, 1983. They performed a short routine and presented the colors for the national broadcast. A video of this performance can be seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVK5w1tsaQU

1983 – February 26 at Market Square Arena – IHSAA Women’s Basketball Finals opening ceremony performance by the Irish Guard

After Band Camp at Milligan College, the Marching Woodmen began the 1983 season with 150 enthusiastic marchers. Director Gary Fields said friendships and a zest for competition kept the fire burning in the heart of his tireless Woodmen marchers. “A student has to earn a leadership role in the band just like an athlete does on a team,” Fields said. “But unlike athletics, there are no ‘cuts’ from the band.” The band played a double-header on September 24. They performed at the Brazil Invitational in the morning and in exhibition at the 4th Greenwood Invitational that evening. Greenwood elected to compete in Class B this year.

1983 competition

In 1983, Jeanette Surina was elected as Greenwood’s seventh mayor and was the first woman to hold the office. Mayor Vaino Grayam returned to full-time teaching at GHS. 1983 also brought changes to the ISSMA competition season. The State Preliminary round was removed and a Regional competition was added. District competition remained the same. But now, each band class (A, B, C or D) would participate in either a northern or southern Regional competition. The top five bands from each Regional site (10 bands per class) would then advance to State Finals. As this differs from the competition season today, you know more changes are coming.

1983 Marching Competition – Drum Major Erin Brenton

Greenwood’s District competition was at Southport on October 1. They next finished 3rd at the Ben Davis Invitational on October 8. They secured a 4th place finish at ISSMA Regionals at Martinsville on October 15. The following weekend they competed in an MBA preliminary competition at Lawrence Central High School.

1983 – October 15 – ISSMA Regionals competition at Martinsville High School – Pam Smith with box of lucky mints

ISSMA State Finals were back at ISU on October 29. Greenwood finished in 3rd place in Class B and tied with Jasper. Marching season ended with a return to the MBA Grand National Competition November 4-5 in Johnson City, TN.

In the spring of 1984, Pam Smith gave the Irish Guard a new look. The familiar toy soldier outfits were replaced with punk rockers and classic music themes gave way to contemporary selections from Van Halen, Def Leppard and Cheap Trick.

There were eight contests on the IHSCGA circuit in its second year: Wapahini, Decatur Central, Center Grove, Shenandoah, Muncie South, Blue River and Brownsburg. The Irish Guard ended their season with a 3rd place finish at the IHSCGA State Finals at Greenwood.

Greenwood’s 1984 field show featured “Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture,” by Mikhail Glinka, “Channel One Suite,” by Bill Reddie and “Danny Boy.”

1984 – marching contest

On September 29 at the ISSMA District contest at Southport, Greenwood was awarded 1st in class and the caption award for best music. They performed a halftime show at an Indiana Central University football game on October 6. That evening, they finished in 6th place at the Ben Davis Invitational. ISSMA Regional competition was again in Martinsville. Greenwood finished 1st in Class B followed by Center Grove in 2nd. A band spokesperson said Greenwood’s regional score is believed to be the highest in the state!

1984 – marching contest

The 1984 ISSMA State Finals moved from ISU to the newly built Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. Director Fields said the new venue raised many concerns for directors. The biggest worry was sound quality in such a large space. But, ultimately, everything was fine. Finals were held on October 20. In a swap from Regionals, Center Grove edged out Greenwood to finish 3rd. Greenwood ended their season in 5th place. Director Gary Fields was not dismayed, “Just making it into the top 10 is great.”

1984 – October 20 – ISSMA State Finals

1984 – October 20 – ISSMA State Finals

On October 27, Greenwood made their first appearance at the Murray State University Festival of Champions in Kentucky. This competition began in 1976. Although bands from other states could participate, the contest was also known as the Kentucky State Championship. In 1984 the competition hosted 29 bands from 4 states.

1984 – October 27 – Murray State University Festival of Champions in Kentucky

Nancy and Barbara Johnson rode one of the buses down to Murray State University with the band. “Much to our surprise, the ride proved to be very pleasant.” They were impressed with the band members during the six-hour trip and during the contest. They continued,”The pride of Johnson County was evident. Center Grove competed and took top honors. Greenwood was supportive of their fellow county representatives, and in turn, Center Grove stood and cheered for Greenwood and applauded their fourth place award. It is so heartwarming to see the closeness between the two schools.”

1984 – Jon Sutton, Gary Fields & Pam Smith

A banquet celebrating the marching season was held November 26 in the school cafeteria. The Greenwood Band Parents Organization donated a large flower arrangement that was presented to Gary Fields and Jon Sutton by band senior Lisa Schaberg.

1985 – Winter Guard competition

The spring concert was April 11, 1985 and featured performances by Concert Band, Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble. Greenwood hosted ISSMA solo and ensemble competition on April 13 featuring over 900 students.

1985 – Band Banquet senior plaques

The green marching uniforms which had served the band since 1971 were retired at the end of the 1984 marching season. At a school board meeting in May 1985, Gary Fields informed the board that over $17,000 had been raised for 140 new band uniforms and 44 flag corps outfits. Another $28,000 was still needed and fundraising would continue. In August, the board agreed to pay the remaining $12,000 balance to replace the 15-year-old uniforms.

A continuing theme in life and band is that all things change. After 4 seasons, in August 1985, Band Director Gary Fields resigned. He went to work for Ben Davis under Director Jim Butz and alongside Gary Wishmeyer, now husband to Greenwood’s guard director Pam (Smith) Wishmeyer. Fields and Wishmeyer both continued at Ben Davis until they retired in 2003. Fields summed up his time at Greenwood, “I enjoyed my time with my colleagues at Greenwood. The students were great,” he said.

Jon Sutton would step up as Band Director with Matthew Barmore becoming Assistant Director. Much like Herman Knoll before him, Director Sutton would elevate Greenwood’s band program to unexpected heights.

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