On Thursday, May 16, Head Band Director Daniel Freeman announced to his band students that he will not be returning for the next school year, and will instead be teaching band at Oxford Middle School. After careful consideration, he decided this will be the best decision for his family.
“There are many weeks in my current job that I see my high school students more than I see my own family,” Freeman said. “I knew that sometime in the next few years, I was going to be at a breaking point where I was going to have to make major changes at work or get a new job because I’ve been sacrificing things at home to make sure I’m living up to what needs to happen at Blue Valley North.”
Although Freeman originally planned to stay at BVN for a few more years, the job opening at Oxford pushed him to make this transition sooner.
“The more I looked at the [job], the more it felt like a really good fit,” Freeman said. “It’s a really strong band program, it has been for generations. It’s nice to have the opportunity to walk into an already-established community that supports music.”
While reflecting on his 13 years at BVN, Freeman discussed the Spain trip that the music department took during winter break this school year.
“The experience we had in Spain was just unbelievable,” Freeman said. “There were millions of people on the streets watching us perform and everybody was just having fun and having a blast.”
Freeman’s assistant band director, Patrick McCarty, said he is sad to see him go as they have known each other for so long.
“I’ve known Mr. Freeman since 1999, we went to college together at KU and were roommates for about three years,” McCarty said.
McCarty said that over the years, he and Freeman have shared many memories.
“We were both in the KU basketball band together so we got to go on a lot of trips together,” McCarty said. “And being able to be a part of his wedding was super cool, and it was a fun moment getting to see him and his wife’s families unite.”
McCarty said he’s happy that Freeman is making the best decision for himself and believes that the future of the program without him will be fine.
“As much as I’m very sad to not work with him anymore, I’m very happy that he’s going to be more happy and that his family is going to be more happy,” McCarty said. “There’s going to be a little bit of void to fill but it’s going to be fine. It’s the students who are going to make it push forward and I’m not worried about anything.”
Freeman has learned several lessons from his students and co-workers over the years, but the main one was to value the little things.
“The [greatest] reward out of the program isn’t the ratings or having a great performance, it’s the reward you get back, it’s when the students embrace the little things that are a part of the process,” Freeman said.
Junior Jay Debaun, an alto-saxophone player, has played under Freeman since freshman year. He said that one of the greatest lessons that Freeman instilled in him was respect for others.
“His golden rule is respect. Respect music [and] respect people,” Debaun said.
The one piece of advice Freeman has for students next year is to keep an open mind and understand the changes that will come with a new band director.
“It won’t be the same,” Freeman said. “Don’t expect it to be the same, and it’s okay if it’s not the same and that is sometimes hard to come to terms with.”
To deal with the change, Freeman hopes his students give the new director the benefit of the doubt.
“Be patient, and be helpful, don’t be combative,” Freeman said. “If [the new director] said something that is different than what [the students] are used to, it is probably totally fine. Take a step back, and take a breath and realize it’s probably totally fine and probably really smart.”
