Reprinted from the Athens Daily News, October 3, 1997

Popular bandmate drowned during an outing this summer

By Beverly Cox
Staff Writer

The calendar says it's fall, but the sun is brutal on the football field at Clarke Central High School where a light breeze carries notes of a familiar R.E.M. song.

Members of the Clarke Central Marching Band are on the field with instruments in hand, but this is not the usual practice for the Friday night game.

Drum major and Clarke Central senior Kevin Epps yells himself hoarse directing traffic on the field, working with an intensity not found in the average teen.

"Power, folks. Remember why we're doing this," Epps says from midfield.

For the past month, the band has worked to put together a tribute show for a their late band-mate, Amanda Dabney Holmes, a multi-talented, gifted musician with a bright smile who planned to be a kindergarten teacher like her mom.

She drowned June 28 in the Broad River at Watson Mill Bridge State Park in Madison County while attending a going-away party for a friend. She was there with several other members of the band - a school organization that considers itself a family.

"Amanda will always be in our hearts, through our music and in remembering what a great person she was," Epps said.

A friend to many, Amanda, 17, would have been a senior this year.

During halftime at tonight's game, the band will march silently onto the field, forming an A and an H on either side of the 50-yard line.

They then will play three of Amanda's favorite songs: "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers, "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical, "Les Miserables" and a special arrangement of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" off the "Automatic for the People" album.

At the end of their last practice Wednesday, band director Milton Clinkscales gathered the musicians around him, telling them to practice at home and sear every note into their memory.

"We are doing this to honor someone we lost this summer. This is not for my glory. This is not your glory. This is to honor Amanda," he said.

Many of those on the field Wednesday witnessed the June tragedy. At the end of practice, a few members of the band trudged back to the band room in tears.

"It's been really hard. If I think of it as just another show, it's OK, but if I think of it as her dedication, it's hard," Julie Rash, a friend of Amanda and a senior at Clarke Central, said after practice.

"It brings back memories of her. You have to focus on the good times we had with her, the fun we had together," said Grant Kohler, a senior.

Amanda's parents, Robb and Carole Holmes, will be at Billy Henderson Stadium at 7:30 tonight to see the show. Amanda's younger sister, Lillian, a Clarke Central freshman, will be on the field, playing percussion in the same spot where her big sister played last year.

"I'm certainly very pleased they are doing something in Amanda's memory. It's very important to me that she be remembered," her father said. "It's important for them, too. A lot them were there when Amanda drowned and many tried to help her when it was not humanly possible that they could have saved her.

"For those kids, it's more than just the loss of a friend. It's the kind of trauma no one should go through, especially at that age. It's been a very hard, very traumatic experience," he said.

Holmes said the special arrangement of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" was coordinated by close friends Roger Dancz, former director of the University of Georgia Marching Band, and his son, noted Athens musician Steve Dancz. The two contacted Jeff Sims, a musician who lives on Tybee Island, to do the arrangement for Amanda with the permission of R.E.M.

Asked what they will be thinking when they hit the field tonight, several of Amanda's friends simultaneously exhaled and went silent, until one friend spoke what they were all thinking.

"I just hope we can get through it."

Band members will wear ribbons on their uniform sleeves in memory of Amanda Holmes.	Percussionist Lillian Holmes will be performing during tonight's tribute to her sister, Amanda.

Photos by Todd Bennett, Staff