About an hour before the playoff game between Andrews and Springtown started on Monday, members of the Sweetwater and Big Spring bands were putting the final touches on the pregame and halftime performances.
Sweetwater Band Director Matthew Gudino and Big Spring Band Director Gabe Martinez were tasked with combining the more than 100 students that showed up to support the Andrews community after its band director and a longtime math teacher died in a tragic bus crash that was carrying band students to a football playoff game Friday night.
Martinez said there was plenty of discussion prior to Monday’s game, but the final call was to play in honor of Andrews.
“ It was just the right thing to do,” Martinez said. “There’s no right words. It was just the right thing for us to do.”
Gudino also compiled a piece that was played at halftime in honor of Andrews High School Band Director Darin K. Johns. The piece was called “Nearer, My God, to Thee.”
Prior to the game, Gudino told the band members that there’s a story behind every measure. The piece is bookended with tubas, which was Johns’ instrument. The Springtown pep band also played “Sweet Sweet Spirit” to the Andrews crowd during halftime.
“I knew that Darin Johns was a Christian man and I thought it very appropriate to play a hymn for him,” Gudino said. “… It’s very symbolic of him ascending to heaven. I hope that doesn’t sound too corny but that what was going through my mind was him saying goodbye at the end.”
Martinez said both Big Spring and Sweetwater are on Thanksgiving break and he didn’t know if anyone would show up. There were more than 100 members of the Sweetwater and Big Spring bands that showed up at the Class 4A Division I area playoff game to cheer on and play for Andrews. Springtown defeated Andrews 43-33.
“We had a great turnout for both schools,” Martinez said. “They are doing things right and they are doing it for the right reasons.”
Though members of the Andrews band weren’t required to show up, students like senior flutist Honestie Salazar came to play alongside Sweetwater and Big Spring.
Salazar said it has been rough but she said it has been amazing to see the support shown from communities across Texas.
“It’s kind of hard under the circumstances why they are here, but at the same time it shows that they are supportive,” Salazar said. “It means a lot to us. It means a lot to all the support that we are getting.”
Guest members of the bands included more than current students.
Texas Rangers organist Dustin Tatro, a 2005 Andrews High School graduate, drove from Abilene to play alto sax alongside the band students. Tatro said that he hasn’t played the alto sax for about two years but we wouldn’t have missed this opportunity to play for Johns.
Tatro said he was in band from the sixth grade until his senior year at Andrews. He knew Johns when he was the band director at Colorado City.
Tatro said he shared a special moment with Johns after the passing of his mother. Tatro said those 45 minutes Johns ministered to him made a difference. Tatro said he plans on returning to Andrews for Johns’ funeral services later this week.
“Working in game entertainment at the professional level has taught me one thing in addition to what I already knew, that the athletic community is very close, but the musical community is even tighter than that,” Tatro said. “That has hit me really hard since Friday night as it has everybody whether we’ve been out of high school 16 years or not.”
Prior to Monday’s game, Ines Padilla of Sweetwater and her husband, Antonio, hung signs around the Mustang Bowl to support Andrews.
The signs read “#AndrewsStrong”, “Go Mustangs” and “Black and Gold.”
“It’s small town love,” Padilla said. “It kind of hit close to home because it could happen to anybody at any time. We want to make sure that we show that we are behind them and we are with them all the way.”
The fatal collision happened at 4:02 p.m. Friday on Interstate 20, two miles east of Big Spring.
A preliminary investigation showed a 2016 Ford F-350 truck was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 20 for unknown reasons. A 2005 Motor Coach Industries bus and a 2018 Freightliner bus were traveling eastbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 20.
The report issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety says the F-350 struck the 2005 Motor Coach Industries bus in the outside lane. The 2018 Freightliner bus also struck the Ford.
The Ford caught fire upon impact. The report said the 2018 Freightliner sustained minor damage.
The driver of the Ford truck, Nathan Paul Haile, 59, of Midland was killed. The report stated he was not wearing a seatbelt and was pronounced dead by Justice of the Peace Kelly Seales.
Marc Elbert Boswell, 69, of Andrews, in the 2005 Motor Coach Industries bus, was also killed and was the driver of the bus as well as the statistician of the football team. He is a retired longtime math teacher who enjoyed driving the bus. He was wearing a seatbelt and was pronounced by Dr. Theophilus Pham, the report said.
Johns, 53, of Andrews, was a passenger and was killed. He was pronounced dead by Seals, the report stated. His wife, Karen Gatny Johns, 53, of Andrews, was taken to Scenic Mountain Medical Center in Big Spring with non-incapacitating injuries, the report stated.
Additional passengers included 25 Andrews High School students. Two students were airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock with incapacitating injuries, the report stated.
Eleven students were transported to Scenic Mountain Medical Center with non-incapacitating injuries and the remaining 12 students were not injured, the report stated.
The investigation was conducted by Odessa Texas Highway Patrol Sgt. Jon Shock and assisted by 4A District Crash Team, Texas Highway Patrol, Big Spring Police Department, Big Spring Fire Department, Howard County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Transportation.
Before Monday’s game, Martinez spoke with his band members about how often they travel that stretch of road going to and from games.
The accident occurred just about two miles from the site of a December 2016 crash that killed one person and injured seven others who were on an Iraan school van of cheerleaders heading to a playoff game.
“At any given moment, it could have been anyone of us,” Martinez said. “We travel that interstate weekly, sometimes twice a week. That’s a very known area for us. This is something that the Andrews students will never forget and we are doing it for them, not for us.”
