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The Gwynn Park High School marching band is hard at work this winter break, rehearsing in the band room and on the football field as they prepare to perform at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, this Sunday.
The band will be performing before the Washington Commanders take on the Atlanta Falcons this weekend.
Members of the band credit this honor to their band director, Leon Rawlings, who they call “Coach.”
“Coach came in, and honestly, it was really amazing. The NFL game, that’s pretty big,” said Pavan Rajgor, an 11th grade drum major.
Sanah Dieng, who is drum major alongside Rajgor, said Coach not only directs them musically, he also looks out for all of the band members academically.
“More than the music, more than the counts, it’s always school first. He wants us to be able to get to college,” Dieng said.
Rawlings, a D.C. native, graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, attended Berklee College of Music and graduated from the University of the District of Columbia.
“We have band scholars,” Rawlings said. “They’re not just musicians.”
Rawlings said 90-95% of the band members are on the honor roll, and a lot of its former members received a full ride scholarship to college bands, including his son, Myles.
Rawlings laughed as he said he named his son after the legendary jazz musician Miles Davis: “The music is the blood, man!”
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Both of Rawlings’ children were in the school’s band before he was the band director. They asked their father to help the band, and school officials were so impressed with his work as a volunteer, they offered him the full-time position of band director.
Several of Rawlings’ friends who were in the marching band with him growing up now help coach the students at Gwynn Park.
Rawlings credits his former band directors, including Lloyd Hoover from the now-shuttered Shaw Junior High School, for his success. Now, he is passing that knowledge to the next generation.
“They did it for us, and I’m trying to give back to them,” Rawlings said.