Too late. At this point, everyone among the middle school band's 144 trumpet tooters, baton twirlers and flag bearers knew that they are headed for the fame of the floodlights at this year's Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City. Barring a Boardwalk fiasco, the band will be one of six groups to perform in the parade for the nation's premier pageant on Sept 13.
It is the only middle school band in the nation selected to perform this year, Chichester officials said.
The day before the televised event, the group of fifth to ninth graders will strut along the Boardwalk for a third straight year in the high-stepping, three-mile pageant parade.
``It's our lucky day,'' said Marge Borek, a public relations coordinator for the Chichester district whose 11-year-old daughter, Adria, is a state champion baton twirler and veteran pageant-parader. ``It's wall-to-wall people, and everybody cheers, and they are pumped.''
In the countdown to the pageant, the children will rely on Karl Hentschel, their high-octane coach and impresario, to whip them into harmonic shape. Hentschel is the band's fourth leader in three years. The quick turnover was spurred by the death in June 1994 of a beloved band leader who had been with the school district for 21 years.
Yesterday, on the third day of pageant band camp, Hentschel darted about a vacant parking lot behind the middle school, drilling a giggling gaggle of majorettes, band members and silks.
``Left, left, mark time up front,'' Hentschel barked, sprinting past a column of sweaty band members as they lumbered along to the strains of ``Hang On Sloopy.'' As the midday sun glinted off shiny brass trumpets and saxophones, pint-size legions from the ``silk sqaud'' filed past, holding aloft an array of fluttering yellow, orange and red flags.
