(Orange City) —
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{audio} images/stories/mp3/December 2012/Rose Bowl 1.mp3{/audio}
Well, it’s happening, and for the second time! That’s Steve Connell, director of The
MOC-Floyd Valley High School Marching Band, known as the “Flying Dutchmen.” The band will be
one of twenty-one bands in the 2013 Rose Bowl Parade.
Mr. Connell has been the band director at MOC-Floyd Valley for 38 years and says it’s taken
a lot of time and energy to get the band where they are today. Getting an invitation to the
Rose Bowl parade not only requires that your band be good, Connell says you have to put
together a hefty portfolio.
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Other bands participating hail from all over the globe…Japan and El Salvador are those
traveling from overseas, and our neighbor, Sioux Falls will be represented. Some of those
schools have thousands of students, MOC-Floyd Valley has 420 students and 170 are in the
band!
Justin Mason, a senior who plays the trombone and marching baritone says that band is more
than just your average extra-curricular activity at MOC.
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{audio} images/stories/mp3/December 2012/Rose Bowl 3.mp3{/audio}
Other students shared with me that when they found out they were going there were happy
tears, and excitement about going somewhere warm.
The signature of the Flying Dutchmen is their Dutch costumes and wooden shoes.
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{audio} images/stories/mp3/December 2012/Rose Bowl 4.mp3{/audio}
Contrary to some rumors I’ve heard, Connell says it is not true that they wear through a
pair of shoes in just this one parade. However, wearing through a pair in a season is more
than normal, depending on how big the wearer is. Five to ten thousand dollars is spent each
year on the wooden shoes, which are imported from Holland.
The MOC-Floyd Valley High School “Pride of the Dutchman” Marching Band is unit 14 in the New
Years Day Rose Bowl Parade, so don’t forget to turn it on right away if you want to catch
them clomping along!
