LAKE WALES – When Meagan Delacerda became band director at Lake Wales High School three years ago, the program had only 20 members. Today, it has grown to 190 students, including a 120-member marching band, and the program is earning top honors at competitions across the state.
“Our band has been breaking barriers throughout the last two years,” Delacerda said.
Delacerda has worked hard to change the outdated stereotype often associated with band students.
“So often it’s thought that band is for geeks,” she said. “But I tell my students it doesn’t make you a geek just because you love what you’re doing.”
That philosophy, combined with a piece of advice from her father, “If you have a good time, they will too” has helped transform the program and attract more students.
And it appears the student musicians are having plenty of fun while achieving success.
For the past two years, the band has earned straight superior ratings and has participated in the Florida State Championship. Numerous Lake Wales High students have also been selected for all-county and all-state bands, representing their school across Florida.
Students also excelled during recent solo and ensemble competitions, performing both individual solos and small group pieces for judges. Twenty-five band students and 15 color guard members received superior ratings and will advance to state competition in March.
More success followed at the FFCC Venice Beach competition, where both the indoor color guard and indoor percussion teams earned first place in their categories while also posting some of the highest scores of the entire event.
Delacerda said she appreciates the strong support the LWHS community shows for the music program.
“I’ve been associated with organizations that didn’t support music programs,” she said. “It definitely makes me thankful for all the resources and love this community gives the band. That is not the case everywhere.”
Teaching music runs in the family. Her father, Michael Yopp, served as a band director for more than 30 years with much of that time at LWHS. After years in public schools, he went on to start band programs at Webber International and Warner Universities. He currently serves as a professor of instrumental music at Freed-Hardeman University.
Delacerda, a Fort Meade High School graduate, said as a little girl she watched her father build and nurture successful band programs.
“I grew up watching the Scottish unit at Pioneer Days, the band in the Christmas parade and performing at very, very high levels,” she said. “My dad is very proud that a Yopp came back and grew a program that my parents put their entire lives into.”
Additionally, Delacerda’s mother is an English professor who teaches both high school and college courses in Tennessee. One of her sisters, Allison Irizarry, serves as the band director at Bok North and acts as an assistant to her with the LWHS bands. Her younger sister, Kendall, was recently accepted to the University of Memphis where she plans to study music education and become a band director as well.
“Eventually, my mom and dad will have all three daughters as band directors,” Delacerda said.
Michael Delacerda, her husband, is the band’s sound technician and helps with marching fundamentals. He also teaches Digital Design at LWHS.
The musical tradition doesn’t stop there, every member of the Yopp family plays the trombone including Delacerda’s husband.
“We have a very musical family, and we use each other to run ideas by, figure out difficult situations and support each other’s dreams,” she said. “We are a very close family.”
Delacerda said serving as the LWHS band director has been a life-changing experience.
“For me, it has been an honor,” she said.
