Passing the baton

10/20/2012

Congratulations to former Elmore, Ohio, resident Jon Waters on being named director of Ohio State University’s marching and athletic bands. Mr. Waters, a Woodmore High School graduate, began the 2012 football season as the band’s interim director.

Others may enjoy more glory on the gridiron, yet Mr. Waters’ story has the special ring of a small-town young man who hit the big time. The sousaphone-playing Mr. Waters made good on his eighth-grade ambition of dotting the “i” on the band’s “Script Ohio” during OSU’s 1998 game against its arch rival, the University of Michigan. Mr. Waters then became the band’s assistant director and, now, its director.

After he failed his freshman audition in 1994, his mother told him that how he responded to that setback would be a test of his character. Here’s to perseverance.