Band president Stephanie on Columbus TV

Early on Friday morning, the Hilliard Darby Marching Band, cheerleaders and football fans gathered at the school field as the Columbus NBC-TV affiliate featured them on its morning news show. The reporter started the "Football Friday Night - Morning Kickoff" segment by interviewing the band president - Stephanie.


Cathy writes: As you can see, it was a VERY foggy morning. The students had to report to school at 5:00 AM to get into their uniforms and get warmed up. They appeared on air periodically between 6-7 AM. The reporter would do various live reports throughout the broadcast to get viewers excited for the game.

This video shows all the parts of the broadcast that featured Darby - excluding all the other news, weather, traffic, etc. Right around the 0:40 mark, you will recognize the Darby Band President being interviewed. Go Stephanie!

As for the game that night, crosstown rival Hilliard Bradley won 21-7. The Darby band was tired, but still did a fine job performing during the game and at halftime.

Florida family members all safe after hurricane

Hurricane Irma in Florida, Sept. 10-11, 2017

We're glad to know that our family members in Florida are all safe after Hurricane Irma made its way through the state.

At one point, the storm seemed to be aiming for the southeastern part of the state, and there was concern about serious flooding in Palm Beach County where Courtney lives. Irma's western turn lessened the storm surge on the east coast when it struck the state on Sunday, although the high winds brought down trees and power lines and Courtney was without electricity as of Tuesday.

The course change sent the hurricane up Florida's west coast, and for a time it appeared Irma had her eye on Tampa Bay. That raised the concern level for Austin and his daughter, Rachel, who both live in Clearwater, between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. But the storm tracked farther inland than expected and began to weaken. "All is well," Austin messaged Monday morning as what was now a tropical storm began to move away. "No significant damage except for scattered branches on the street. Power is still on. Everyone is safe."

As Irma moved on into Georgia and Alabama, its enormous size brought tropical storm winds across South Carolina and much of North Carolina. Owen reported on Tuesday that he'd been assured by a friend "that my Charleston house is fine and did not become an aquarium." His daughter, Lizzie, currently teaches third grade in the Charleston suburbs and lives in Daniels Island, S.C., which was hit by high wind and tidal flooding on Monday. Liz had retreated to Charlotte, N.C., to wait out the storm, but was able to return Tuesday. The school system, which was closed Friday through Tuesday, resumed classes on Wednesday.

Scenes from sunny days on Cape Cod

Chatham lighthouse

As previously posted, Dan, Julie, Christine, Andy and Shannon visited Cape Cod in August, meeting James and his family as well as Owen and Gerrit. Here are some more photos taken by Dan during their three-day stay.

Boats in Provincetown harbor

Sunset over Provincetown

Tourists and shoppers in downtown Provincetown

On the same day as the solar eclipse, the group watched the sun set at Chapin Beach, where low tide exposes a wide expanse of beach that is covered by water at high tide.

Low tide at Chapin Beach

Christine, Jamie, Andy, Shannon hike toward the bay

Posing with the sun

The sun retires after its busy day

28 plays out summer; Nolan gets into the act

Cape Cod's best band, 28, finished a series of summer performances by playing at Chatham Shellfish Co.'s Second Annual Labor Day Party.

The daytime event gave Nolan a chance to see the band's show.

Gerrit writes: "Nolan saw me play with the band for the first time today. He was so excited to sing with daddy during our break. I nearly melted from the cuteness overload." Nolan joined Dad for a duet on the Alphabet Song.

Steph and bandmates on local TV news

The Hilliard-Darby High School marching band was featured on Columbus, Ohio's Channel 4's five o'clock news on Friday, Sept. 1, during the warm-up for that night's football game between Darby and crosstown rival Davidson HS. The video above is set to start 45 seconds into the report, and at about the 55-second mark, as the weatherman says "We're gonna try for dry," you can see Stephanie with her clarinet just left of a flag-waver.

Cathy also took a brief video of the band as it was playing for the TV cameras:



And the game? It was a close, low-scoring contest, with Darby winning 9-6 in overtime.