Pete Rodriguez was my high school band director.
In time since I’ve been in high school (and let’s face it, I graduated months and MONTHS ago), I’ve always had a moment of confusion when I hear peers talk about “band geeks” or “band queers.” Evidently it’s a tradition that people in high school band are looked down on by the general population.
Know what? That wasn’t true in my high school. At Bryan High School, the band was widely acknowledged for its excellence and the school was damn proud of it. Why? Well, the answer is, mostly: Pete Rodriguez.
Rodriguez (or “Mr. Rod” as he was universally known) had a quiet, no-nonsense demand for excellence which had a way of sneaking up on you and bringing out your best. He was also quirky, funny, smart, and talented.
Never having been an athlete (as hard as that is to believe by looking at me), my experiences in speech/drama and band were my “team” experiences in high school. And Pete Rodriquez was a wonderful coach. He had such confidence in his own abilities that he could afford to talk to you with respect, as if you were a peer. He knew that he could do this without any of us ever mistaking him as an equal — something that absure would have simply never occurred to any of us. However, the respect he gave us, individually and as a group, was quite empowering.
We won lots of awards under his leadership, and had plenty of adventures on the football field and on the road. Perhaps our finest hour together occurred, ironically, in his absence. In 1975 he underwent bypass surgery and missed a few months of work. Under the skilled temporary leadership of Linda Adams and inspired by our desire to “win it for Mr. Rod, ” our symphonic band went on to win “Sweepstakes, ” which was the highest honor possible under the Texas University Interscholastic League’s yearly competition.
Mr. Rod once made a prophetic statement. “You watch, ” he said. “You’ll see. As you get older you’ll find that a huge percentage of your good high school memories have to do with band.”
Of course, he was right.
I called his widow Mary today and told her I couldn’t imagine my high school experience without Pete Rodriguez. I was lucky to know him.
I had the same experience in HS. Band, orchestra, choir and theater was the “other cool group”. I never felt like a geek – why aren’t athletes considered physical fitness geeks? – I felt privileged to go to a HS that had such talented people. I meet people now that talk about their HS experience as being so boring and a waste of time – I feel so sorry for them. Too bad the real world is not more like my HS.
I am sure his widow really appreciated your call.
Sad day for all of us who were blessed to have Mr. Rod as their teacher/coach/band director. I remember how scared we all were when he had that bypass surgery. How wonderful that he walked among us for so many years touching so many others. He was right….my best memories and lessons learned came from those band years.
Proud to have been a “band geek” and we will miss the man who made us that way!
Cindy
Great to see you here, Cindy!! How did you find my blog?
I loved band. My best memories in High School were band and theater related.
Mr. Rod was my band director from ’62 through ’64 – a long time ago. I’m very sad to hear that he is gone. I’ll really miss him.
Let me share this about Mr. Rod as it relates to the ‘Band Queer’ issue. One day, returning to the band hall in the fall of 1962, some of the football squad was lying in wait for an opportunity to taunt and tease the band folks. They started in on us, mocking us and threatening us. Mr. Rod absolutely flew into the middle of them and started cussing them and beating hell out of them – all 5 feet 6 inches of him! It was amazing to see. He said, “You’d better leave my people alone or I’ll put you in the hospital!” Our lives got much better after that.
We had 40 band members at the sart of that year. In 1963, we had 120. It was all because of Pete and his drive and his character.
I just thought I’d add my two cents.
Best Regards,
Dave
Oh, Ray. I didn’t know until now that Mr. Rod had passes away. What a dear, dear man. He is one of the best memories I have of high school. I’ll never forget him promoting me that year, and finding out that one of the things he took care of before going into surgery was to make sure I was placed in “A” band, where he said I belonged.
Damn, I’m crying.