Music students give new life to the Sapulpa school song
Posted on 10/18/2022
(SPS, Sapulpa High School Seniors Riley Groves and Sara Pagan, Choir Director Gina Myers) -- Sapulpa High School Drum Majors and Honors Music Theory students Riley Groves and Sara Pagan have recently completed a big project that will allow the SHS Band to play the Sapulpa School Hymn at the end of our football games.

The SHS Leadership classes wanted to add the tradition of singing the school song as a team/student body at the end of the football games, but there were no band parts to the song available.

After some searching, a manuscript of an arrangement of our school song from the George Brite era was found, but it wasn’t usable by the band in its handwritten full score state.

With the help and guidance of SHS Vocal Music Assistant, Mr. Bruce Wilkin, Riley and Sara spent a couple of weeks entering each individual instrument part into Finale, a music production software, to create a usable version of the Sapulpa School Hymn.

Sara entered all of the woodwind parts and Riley entered the brass and created the percussion parts. Together, they checked and double-checked for any edits that needed to be made. The result is a product that can be easily read, printed and copied for each individual instrument as well as the full score copy for the conductors.

The band will play the hymn at the end of Friday's Homecoming football game against Memorial at Collins Stadium.

George Brite served as Sapulpa Public Schools' band director for 34 years, from 1953 to 1987, and the district dedicated the George C. Brite Band Hall in 1996. 

Thank you Riley and Sara for helping to continue the tradition and legacy of Sapulpa High School! 

Riley Groves and Sara Pagan work on restoring the Sapulpa School Song Riley and Sara work with Bruce Wilkin Sapulpa School Hymn Restoration Sapulpa School Song RestorationFinale production software
Riley Groves and Sara Pagan with the Sapulpa School Song they restored