Athletes getting into treble

Aaron Castillo pulls on a football helmet with a big red and black T on the side.

The Tascosa senior then tugs his Adidas gloves tight on his hands.

His black and white Nike socks make for a clean look, sitting exactly at the same height just above his high-top Under Armour cleats.

His focus is making sure he is lined up correctly.

Then No. 33, with shoulder pads on, goes to work.

Castillo plays the baritone saxophone through the face mask of his helmet for the Tascosa Rebels' marching band during halftime performances.

"I started playing an instrument in the sixth grade," Castillo said.

"I've played football all my life. I thought, 'Why not try both?' and started marching last year. Both are a lot of fun."

The arrangement suits Tascosa head football coach Ken Plunk just fine.

"Man, it's high school football, Friday night lights. Why not have some fun?" he said.

"When Aaron gets in a game, oh my goodness, the band gets fired up."

Tonight, 98 percent of the Class 6A and 5A high school football players across Texas will use the 25 minutes or so of halftime for rest, hydration and talking over game plan adjustments with their coaches.

A unique few will continue to shine at the half by marching in the school band.

Uniformed players marching at halftime of a small-school football game is not a rare sight across Texas. But in recent years, it has been rare at 5A and 6A games.

Amarillo-metro teams seem to be bucking that trend this season, with the likes of Castillo, Amarillo High starting sophomore kicker Sam Burks (baritone), Caprock starting sophomore kicker Kevin Diaz (baritone) and Canyon starting junior left offensive tackle Quentin Weigle (drums).

While each student owns a unique story, the foundation of combining band and football is the same.

For starters, each had the guts to ask his head football coaches if his passion for music could possibly extend to marching with band "teammates" at halftime.

Then, without the cooperation between band directors and football coaches, having a young man in football pants and cleats march among stylishly uniformed band members would never happen.

Amarillo High's Burks approached Sandies head football coach Mel Maxfield and AHS band director Bruce Collins with the idea last spring. Burks even worked up a contract detailing his schedule of dividing his time between football and the band.

"Coach Max looked at it over a weekend and came back, said it sounds good," Burks said.

Maxfield said Burks, who ranks in the top 10 of District 2-6A in scoring, loves AHS activities - he is the sophomore class president, has a 100 grade point average and plays soccer. Maxfield praised Burks for the "try in him."

"Sam is a kid that works very, very hard and is very conscientious and very coachable," he said.

While the "fun" part of being a football player or band member comes on Friday nights, the weekday schedule is demanding.

"You really don't have time for anything else," said Castillo, whose daily schedule includes an evening of band and football from 4 to 8:30 p.m.

Burks arrives at AHS by 7 a.m. each day for band practice, then attends football practice from 4 to 6:30 p.m.

Weigle has an especially brutal Monday, arriving at school at 7 a.m. for drumline practice, where he's one of three on the tenor drums. Football practice normally lasts from 2:45 to 5 p.m., then the entire band gets together for a 5:30 to 8 p.m. practice.

He also can be found flipping burgers or working the drive-up window at McDonald's some evenings in Canyon.

"That's the question I get asked most," Weigle said. "How do I do both (football and band) and work?"

Despite the busy schedules, despite having to hurry like crazy during halftime, despite the stereotypes of football and band not mixing, each player said life is a blast these days.

And while all football players marching in bands stand out, nobody does it quite like Castillo.

He not only plays in full football gear, but he spends the first half in the stands with the band, then plays in spot duty during blowouts for the Rebels in the second half.

"I wear the helmet while I play because it just takes a lot less time to get ready," Castillo said.

"It's really exciting for me to see the excitement people get by me doing both."

Castillo is proud to set an example he hopes others will follow on Friday nights to come.

"I'm doing this for every kid who has dreamed of doing both band and football at the same time, to show them it's possible," he said