- January 9, 2025
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Mainland High School band assistant director Evan Gilbert (back row left) and director Gregory Dukes (back row right) and leaders (left to right, front row) Cameron Wilcox, Karmen Williams, Javon Estes and Kyani Garnett. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School band directors and leaders (left to right) - assistant director Evan Gilbert, Cameron Wilcox , Karmen Williams, Javon Estes, Kyani Garnett and director Gregory Dukes. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School band musicians (left to right) Kyani Garnett, Karmen Williams, Jesiah Thomas, Abby Grove and Cameron Wilcox show off the trophies they won at the Battle of the Bands field competition and the parade competition. Courtesy photo.
Mainland drum majors Karmen Williams (left center) and Cameron Wilcox (right center)lead the band out on the field for their homecoming performance during halftime at the game against Belleview. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland sousaphone players dance along the drumline during the homecoming festivities at the Daytona Stadium. Photo by Michele Meyers
Flutist walk the Mainland drum line during the homecoming festivities at the Daytona Stadium on game night. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School band drum majors Cameron Wilcox and Karmen Williams with fellow musicians Javon Estes and Kyani Garnett. Photo by Michele Meyers
The Mainland Marching Band performs in the Ponce Inlet Christmas Parade on December 7, 2024. Photo by Michele Meyers
Mainland High School band sousaphone player Javon Estes. Photo by Michele Meyers
On New Year’s Eve last week, the Mainland High School marching band earned some well-deserved hardware during the Allstate Sugar Bowl festivities, which has been held in New Orleans since 1935.
The Bucs won a first-place trophy in music, first for general effect and placed second overall in their class for the Battle of the Bands field show competition. The percussion section was also awarded a first-place trophy for their performance in the New Year’s Eve parade while the band placed third overall.
Mainland band director Gregory Dukes said he was contacted by Angela Topper, a WorldStrides Performing Tour Specialist, after she watched their presentation at the Florida Bandmasters Association Music Performance Assessments in Altamonte Springs on Nov. 2 last year. The Bucs played four Michael Jackson songs and scored straight superior ratings in visual performance, music, general effect and auxiliary.
Topper invited the band to participate in the Sugar Bowl festivities organized for this year’s football game between the University of Notre Dame and the University of Georgia. Activities included the Battle of the Bands and a Mardi Gras-styled parade. WorldStrides organizes educational travel experiences for students outside the traditional school settings. Part of Topper’s job is to select high school marching bands to perform at major college bowl games and national parades.
Dukes and his assistant director Evan Gilbert accepted the invitation and began to tackle the task of taking approximately 90 students to New Orleans.
“Everyone knows we are in the 32114 area code so the support and the finance in our social-economic status is not as great as some other places,” Dukes said. “So if we were going to take on a task this big, we needed to get moving right away and we did.”
Gilbert is the “logistical type of guy”, he said. His first consideration was how much the trip would cost and how were they going to fund it.
“I needed some more information so I could run some numbers to figure out if the band was really going to New Orleans or not,” he said. “Once we started putting it together, we figured it was doable for our community and our families.”
Dukes’ and Gilbert’s work ethic is complimentary to one another, including midnight and early morning discussions.
...I definitely think we are the best because of the directors. Being superior isn’t just a name, it’s actually something that we do. We try to maintain our standards of being a superior band." — Javon Estes, Mainland band sousaphone player
“If he (Dukes) has something on his mind, he’ll call or text and we’ll discuss it,” Gilbert said. “With the drill shows and arrangements, it can take me three to four days thinking about how he wants it, how it’s going to fit the band, fit the community and things like that. Once my head gets to and I put the pen to paper, it comes out magic and the band plays it very well. It seems like they know how I want it to be played.”
Dukes graduated from Mainland in 1999 and went on to get a bachelor’s degree in music at Rollins College and a master’s in Educational Leadership at the University of West Florida. He has been Mainland’s band director since 2019. He and Gilbert became close friends when Gilbert moved to Daytona Beach in 2020. Gilbert graduated from DeLand High School where he played the trumpet, was a drum major and a student conductor. He was part of the Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University’s Marching 100 and graduated with a bachelor’s in music education.
Gilbert said that, as his friendship grew with Dukes, Dukes began to realize he could use someone like him to help with the band. Gilbert was officially hired in 2021.
“From there, it just became history,” Gilbert said. “The band became phenomenal with my knowledge, his knowledge, his experiences, with us being from the area and knowing the students and their parents. It just became great.”
Once the logistics were organized, preparations for the trip began and took 11 months. That included fundraising, practicing, performances, parades and mandatory MPAs. Band captain and clarinet player Kyani Garnett said she wanted to be there for her bandmates through the entire process.
“As band captain, my job is to be a leader for the whole band and guide them musically,” she said. “I always want to be the person that people can come to for anything. They ask me about band events and attire but they also ask me about their instruments as individual players. I love the responsibility.”
Gilbert said they wanted to bring the New Orleans style of jazz and musical culture to their performances in Louisiana and taught the students to play songs that included “Sing, Sing, Sing”, “Oh When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Do Whatcha Wanna” .
“We wanted them to say ‘wow, this Florida band is really playing some authentic New Orleans music — New Orleans jazz and Dixieland band music’,” he said.
Junior Javon Estes plays the sousaphone and is a sprinter on the Mainland track team. He switched from the tenor drum and cymbals to the brass section three years ago. He said even though most parade-goers were looking for that Louisiana style, he said he was going to bring his “Florida style.”
“When I found out, I could have run circles around the whole band room,” Estes said. “I was just so happy we got invited. Most of all, I’m so thankful and appreciative of all my friends in the band and also the directors. I definitely think we are the best because of the directors. Being superior isn’t just a name, it’s actually something that we do. We try to maintain our standards of being a superior band.”
Dukes said his students already have a lot of challenges including maintaining high academic standards, graduation requirements and additional performances. He said even when they are given another goal to reach, they strive to attain it—the kids are the driving force behind what they do.
“They are very intelligent and very talented,” he said. “We just want to expose them to the world. They are a very rambunctious group of students. They have to be moving. They’re likely the ADHD of bands.”
Leading the band are head drum major Karmen Williams and fellow drum major Cameron Wilcox. Williams became the clarinet section leader her junior year and head drum major her senior year. This is Wilcox’s first year as a drum major and has been playing the trombone since sixth grade. They both bring a different style to leading the band—Williams said she is energized and Wilcox said he is calm and cool.
“I’m really proud of this band—we’ve been through a lot,” Wilcox said. “I love everybody in this band.”
Williams currently has a 3.9 weighted GPA and is dual enrolled at Daytona State College. She hopes to graduate with an associates degree before going to the FAMU College of Law. She helps her mother take care of her nine siblings and works at Sunelli to contribute to the family finances. She said people like her would not have had the opportunity to go to New Orleans if she were not involved with the band.
“I was shocked when I found out we were going,” Williams said. “Now I know where music can take me—music can take me outside of where I go. It’s a bittersweet moment because it’s my last year. Now I’m going out with a bang in New Orleans.”
