Where Team and Dream Meet

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Drum major Brent Rubio, top, leads the Pearl City High
marching band through the paces.

Wells Week

Or 'Hell's week' as Pearl City High
marching band members call it

By Kulani Mahikoa
Star-Bulletin

It's called "Wells Week."

But it's better known as "hell's week" to the 265 members of Pearl City High School's marching band, who were put through their paces during 10-hour daily practices last week to prepare for the coming school year.

The taskmaster is David A. Wells, bandmaster at Boise State University and choreographer for the Pearl City band's halftime show, who spends a week in Hawaii each summer to teach the band its new music and dance routines for the coming year.

Wells and Pearl City High bandmaster Michael Nakasone, named one of the top band leaders in the country by the John Philip Souza Foundation, have teamed up for this event for more than 20 years.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
There’s some fun going on amid all that work.
With drummers using buckets, Tara Tomoyasu decided
to put hers to better use.

"We teach them how to be a team and how to dream," Wells said. "We give them a choice -- either be mediocre or go the extra mile."

This year, the band will perform on the nationally televised half-time show at the Alabama Blue Gray all-star college game.

Wells said the high point of the new show is a Tahitian-Samoan slap-dance song to be performed by the band and 95 members of Olana Ai's hula halau.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Margot Kimura leans against a fellow
band member during a rest break.

"It's tiring but really, really fun," said senior Jennifer Ichise, a 16-year-old piccolo player.

At week's end, the Pearl City High School stadium was packed with more than 1,000 parents and supporters who came to see the results of all that toil.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Plastic buckets are used instead of heavy drums.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
The Pearl City High School band, 256 strong,
stands in formation.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
It was so hot that Audrey Kimura doused her brother Bryce.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
The long day done, French horn players mug for
the camera. Practice ended because the field
sprinklers were coming on.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Audrey Kimura seems to take comfort
as she hugs her instrument.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
French horn players Wendy Matsumoto, left and
Chantel Ching share a laugh when they make a mistake.

By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Alllen Murosaki holds Kris Labang upside down
during a break in practice.