By Staff
Story by Lydia Grimes
T.R. Miller High School Band will take the field this football season with a new director at the helm. Lance Gainous, who was part of the Cairo High School Band under the direction of Johnny Folsom, said it is like a dream to be a part of the T.R. Miller School System.
Gainous comes to Brewton via Russell County High School where he was the band director for three years.
Gainous was born in Cairo and grew up there. He is a 2000 graduate of Cairo High School where he played in the band. He said he had been a member of the band since he was in the sixth grade, playing the trumpet. He had also been the musician at First Church of the Nazarene since the sixth grade at Washington Middle School.
Gainous graduated from Troy University in 2005 and his first job was at Russell County High School in Seale.
The band did have about 125 members and right now there are around 75. Twelve of those members are seniors and includes those that are in the colorguard and the majorettes.
According to Gainous, it is better to have quality than to have quantity.
Students who were in the band room at the time of this interview were asked what they thought of the new band director. They all smiled and said they really liked him.
Gainous asked the students to repeat their motto and the voices came back in unison, “Be at the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment, the right attitude and be ready to concentrate.”
Gainous and his wife, Rachel, were married in 2007. She was also from Cairo, but her career is on another course. She is a pharmacy technician and is now working at the Medical Center Pharmacy here in Brewton.
Gainous is working toward his masters degree in music education and doing it in an interesting way.