Jim Bailey: AHS identity, tradition come full circle

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Jim Bailey

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September 4, 2010

For The Herald Bulletin The Herald Bulletin Sat Sep 04, 2010, 08:06 PM EDT

So far, so good. Public high schools in Anderson have gone from one to two to three, then two again, now back to one.

A big roadblock to change is the factor known as nostalgia. But tradition being what it is, Anderson High School already is re-establishing the identity that has carried it and its one-time city rivals into the public eye time and again over the decades.

When I joined the AHS band in 1953, the director was Richard Rencenberger, a gifted musician of whom it was said he had once played in John Philip Sousa’s band. He was in the twilight of his career, but I learned the fundamentals of musicianship under him during my freshman year.

Then came George Vaught, for whom showmanship was important in the esprit de corps that a marching band develops. His bands would go on to win three consecutive state fair championships and set the bar high for Madison County bands.

Now the combined Anderson band, under the banner of Marching Highlanders, notched the latest state fair title, working together as if they had been doing so for a lifetime. And tradition has come full circle.

In my day, AHS was Indiana’s second largest high school. Now, with just under 2,000 students in grades 10 through 12, enrollment compares with those early days, but in a new setting. Anderson no longer is one of Indiana’s fastest-growing areas, heading in the other direction of late. But its traditions still hold the potential evident in the 1950s.

Then, as in recent years, when it came to sports, basketball was king at Anderson High School. That was a factor in the building of the present Wigwam to replace the one that burned in 1958. The Indians were then not that far removed from the 1946 state championship, to go with the two earned in 1935 and 1937. And over the years AHS would come oh, so close to that elusive fourth trophy with runner-up finishes in 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1986.

And under the tutelage of Carl Bonge, AHS track teams would annually be among the state’s elite. In fact, when cross country became an annual fall sport in Indiana, Anderson would be the team to beat year after year.

One thing has changed on the sports scene, however. It used to be that the top athletes not only chose to participate in multiple sports during the school year but were expected to do so. The age of specialization was yet to come.

In the classrooms and hallways, students establish their own traditions and friendships. When they graduate, these relationships are a part of what they were.

Thus in time the seeming nuclear holocaust over school consolidation will dim and become a part of the past. But traditions at Anderson High School will continue in the present. And so it should be.

Jim Bailey’s reflections on Anderson’s past appear on Sunday. His regular column appears on Wednesday. He can be reached by e-mail at jameshenrybailey @earthlink.net.

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