A football game is 48 minutes long but for two members of the Pure Gold Band, game night is a few minutes longer.

Senior Scot Weddle and junior Dean Harrison also are members of the Bulldogs football team. Thus, game night can mean double duty.

When suited up, they are easily recognizable - they are not in band uniforms, or whatever the band is wearing that night (shorts when it’s 100 degrees). Weddle is in his No. 44 jersey, Harrison in No. 58.

Weddle plays the bass clarinet while Harrison plays the trumpet.

Wylie has had football-band members before, and while it’s not unusual to see that in lower UIL classifications, it catches your eye at the Class 5A level.

Especially when, at the center of the field, is a 6-foot-3 musician in a football uniform.

Band director Kyle McDonald and head football coach Clay Martin have agreed to do what they can to make this happen. Not all coaches or band directors want to share, but they are on the same page.

“We are all willing to share,” McDonald said.

There shouldn’t be a rein on talent, Martin said.

“The fact they have the opportunity to play football and be in the band I think is pretty special,” the football coach said. “If at all possible, we want those kids to experience everything that they can and so far, they’ve been able to march each week.”

The Bulldogs football team doesn’t have a band member every year but had another in 2024 - Donnell Muheto.

Thus, Martin and McDonald have been through this before.

BAND AND TEAM SUPPORT EACH OTHER

The Wylie football team and the band have a strong relationship. In the fall of 2016, the Wylie band was flagged for a 15-yard penalty in a game against Snyder. Hugh Sandifer, the coach at the time, loved it. The penalty didn’t cost the team and showed that the band was in tune with what was happening on the field.

Later that fall, at the UL marching contest at the stadium, the football players showed up as a group and tossed yellow flags at the end of Wylie’s show to show their appreciation.
The band director, now retired Mike Lunney, loved it.

McDonald said the camaraderie was displayed again last year.

It was contest time again and the band was using back walls as prompts. Each had to be held in place or it would blow over in the West Texas breeze. Band parents have been used to keep that from happening.

Last year, 30 football players bused to the stadium to prop up the props, allowing parents doing so previously to watch the band’s performance.

“The parents were like, ‘Sweet, I can actually watch my kid perform,’” McDonald said. “That was fantastic.”

Another story that McDonald tells comes from a few years ago.

It was a rainy morning and the band was going to rehearse indoors. The football team relinquishes the stadium to band at 7:30 a.m.

“Coach Martin calls me up at 7:15 and says, ‘Hey, Mr. McDonald, we got on the field late because of the rain and I hate to do this but is there any way we can stay on the football field for another 15 minutes.

“The fact that the head coach was calling up the band director to ask if they could keep practicing in their football stadium, that meant a lot to me,” McDonald said. “He went out of way and was considerate that our time was also important.”

At 7:30 a.m., Martin blows the whistle and the team leaves the field to the marching band.

NOT JUST FOOTBALL

Harrison and Weddle are not the only WHS students pulling double duty.

Junior Luke Cardenas, senior Aden Valdez, and senior Paige Clark are pulling double duty as cross country runners. They run early, then join the band for early rehearsal as do the football players.

Valdez, a trumpeter, is a section leader while Clark began as a flute player but is on marimba in the front ensemble.

“Paige is usually in here by 5-5:30 every day practicing her marimba,” McDonald said.

He said the band members are aware they miss some rehearsals, “so they know they have to put in time outside of class to keep up and, for the most part, they’re doing it.”

He is especially impressed with Cardenas, who plays on the tennis team after school.

“(Cardenas) is spread pretty thin,” McDonald said of his euphonium player. “He’s doing as much as he can at this time. And that’s what we want for these kids, to experience all this stuff.”

There are eight swimmers in the band. They practice first period, so McDonald and coach Casey Pacheco work out a schedule. When a meet or band competition is on the calendar, they make a plan based on priority.

Swimmers in the band are Davis Edmiston, Xavier Grant, Triston Kitchens, Bohdi Lee, Peyton Overby, Elizabth Rollins, Kyliegh Hooper, and Keshia McLaughlin.

“We tell the kids that if they want to do both things,” McDonald said, “this is where you’ve got to be at this time and this is where you’ve got to be at this time.”

LET THEM PLAY… MUSIC AND SPORTS

In addition to the two varsity football players, there are a number of junior varsity and freshmen football players in the band, McDonald said.

“It’s part of my personal philosophy that when kids are in high school, they should do as much as they can,” the band director said. “I think that makes you a better person. You understand different points of view, you interact with different people, you understand the struggles everyone is going through and the difficulties for different activities.

“We do our best to make sure that those kids can do as much as they can while they still can.”

McDonald has nothing but praise for the different Wylie coaching staffs buying into that philosophy, too.

“Top to bottom, they are so great to work with,” he said. “They do a fantastic job of sharing and communicating.”

He leaves it up to the football coaches to determine if a player in the band can participate in the show.

“If he is a key player and they really need him in a close game, I would let them go for halftime,” McDonald said.

It helps that student-athletes Weddle and Harrison have gained the respect and trust of their respective leaders.

“Dean and Scot are excellent young men, are hard-working, and they show every single day,” Martin said. “They are very responsible and guys you can count on.

Both student-athletes have played this year. They are not starters but have contributed to the team.

Harrison has been out with an injury but while that has kept him off the field as an offensive linemen, he has been on the field at halftime with the band. Weddle is a linebacker who has seen action.

“He has been in there and made some tackles,” said McDonald, who is watching the game. It’s really cool to see him.”

Martin makes the call but hasn’t had pushback.

“The fact that they are in the band really is never an issue,” Martin said. “Mr. McDonald has done a great job as band director and has been easy to work with on a lot of issues.

This year’s band show is called “The Ashes of Us” and the homecoming crowd will see the post-Apocalyptic show in its entirety for the first time. It includes a ballad by Johnny Cash called “Hurt.”

Fans likely will see two football players cashing in on their talents in the coming marching band competition season.

DEAN HARRISON: WORKING THROUGH HIS INJURY

Harrison joined band in sixth grade, then launched into football the next year.

“I had an interest in music since I was way younger and got to the point I could play it instrumentally and musically,” he said.

His injury has hampered both performing with the band and helping the Bulldogs keep its offensive line productive. He plays right guard.

“I’m trying to get back into everything but this injury is making it difficult,” he said.

Doing both activities isn’t easy.

“The scheduling is probably the hardest part,” he said. “Making sure I’m on time for this event and on time for that event. If I stay close to Coach Martin or Mr. Mac, we always manage to solve that problem.”

Football, he said, is the hardest now because he has been marching since he was a freshman. Joining the varsity football team was the biggest challenge.

“Just the atmosphere, the intensity of it, and the overall expectations. A little different from freshman and JV year,” he said. “Overall, I like the competition of it. I am glad I get to experience all that.

“Doing it with my buddies, too. It’s all good.”

Harrison knows that music at least will be in his future, even if it’s just a hobby. It’s hard to watch when you want to play.

“If I can’t do it, then I’m the guy on the sideline cheering,” he said.

What does he hear from his bandmates and teammates about doing double duty.

“They are supportive of me. Some of them don’t like me doing both but they support me.
Harrison hopes to play football before the season is out, but he will be playing his trumpet in the UIL show.

“I really like the show. I think by the time competition comes around, we’re going to get better scores than we did last year.”

The good news in the football world is that Harrison has another year left, and may be even more valuable to both of his “teams” next fall.

“I’m going to do everything I can in my healing to get back on the field,” he said.

SCOT WEDDLE: ‘I LOVE BEING ON THE FIELD’

Like his teammate, Weddle started band in sixth grade and followed with football.

His choice of instrument is different. He wanted to play the saxophone like his mom, Jill, who played the sax at Abilene Christian University.

A missed email turned him toward the clarinet.

“My eighth-grade year I switched to bass clarinet because I wanted something a bit different,” he said. “I picked up guitar in eighth grade and have done pretty well with that as well.”

His guitar-playing and singing are the more likely musical paths in the future, he said.

Weddle early on was less sure of playing football.

“But it bloomed and I’m here now,” he said. “I love coming out here and being on the field.

“Doing both is definitely time consuming, yes, but it’s manageable. I prioritize football because it starts first, then I march with the band.”

Weddle said his football teammates are “impressed” that he can do both.

“Sometimes I don’t even get a halftime, especially at home games. By the way the other school marches and then we march, (the team) is already back on the field warming up and going out on the field again,” he said.

Weddle said memorizing music is harder than plays, but “memorizing the drill comes pretty fast for me.”

Like Harrison, Weddle is into this year’s show, especially the second movement that features a solo of Noah Wilson.

“I really do,” he said.

Going from football player to band member back to football player can be challenging. He wants to give 100 percent each way.

“It depends on what’s going on on the field,” Weddle said “It is hard to lock into one side. You have to rely on your muscle memory sometimes.”

Weddle said it’s interesting to be in the spotlight. Game videos will show him going to and from his two jobs on the field.

“It’s kinda comical,” he said.

He said he has struck up a camaraderie with Harrison because of their unique roles. Their younger brothers (Ben Weddle and Matthew Harrison) are playing on the seventh-grade team together.