It’s 41 years for Romines; last 21 leading KCHS band
With 41 years of band direction under his belt, 20 years before coming to KCHS, he has no intentions of retiring.
“I enjoy it,” Romines said. “I like music … I like being a band director and I always try to keep playing” the saxophone.
In his off time, he can often be heard playing his soprano saxophone alone in his office or the cafeteria early in the morning.
“He’s always practicing and playing himself,” PamRhoades, KCHS director of marketing and communications, said of Romines.
Besides enjoying music, he said playing helps him remember his roots. “It’s much harder to be a student than a teacher,” Romines said. “It helps me remember how hard it is to learn to play” an instrument.
What’s so rewarding? He has a drive for excellence from his students.
“He knows what he wants to do, and he knows how to get it done, and you can just see that he really cares about making the music sound good,” band member and senior Adam Cieslik said of Romines. “He wants to put in that effort into helping the students.
“You definitely have to be willing to practice and to accept his teaching in order to get better; but if you have all those qualities he’s one of the best band teachers I’ve ever had,” the senior added.
Cieslik has been learning from Romines for the past seven years, first at St. John Neumann Catholic School before KCHS.
“I started playing in fifth grade,” said Cieslik, a clarinet player who earned a position in the All-East District Band.
Originally from Knoxville, Romines’ love for band started when he was in the fourth grade and learned to play saxophone. He continued playing through high school and beyond.
That love spurred Romines to teach. He received an undergraduate degree in music education, and his first teaching job was in 1980 at Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama, where he taught for two years before going to Indiana University and earning a master’s degree in saxophone performance.
“Then I was fortunate to get a job in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Punahou School, and I was there for six years,” Romines recalled. “I was also the saxophone instructor at the University of Hawaii, Manoa campus.”
However, he returned to Indiana for two years of doctoral work in saxophone performance.
“But I did not finish my degree,” Romines said. “I met my future wife, RoAnn, and saxophone didn’t seem quite as important any more. She was in school there also, and she’s a clarinetist and a band director (in the Maryville School System and Maryville College).”
After leaving the university, he was the assistant director and saxophone instructor for University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Marching Band. Romines climbed the ladder to associate director and interim director for the marching band and concert band during his seven years at UT.
After leaving UT, Romines was hired by the Knoxville Catholic school system.
Sacred Heart Cathedral School, St. John Neumann Catholic School and KCHS all wanted a band director, he recalled.
“Since they didn’t have a band, they teamed up and they all decided they would hire me and I would go between the three schools,” he said.
Romines joined KCHS in January 2000, around the time the school’s new location in Cedar Bluff had just opened, and the Catholic school system was starting a band program.
“When I came, they took me down to this brand new band room and said, ‘This is where you’re going to rehearse,’” he recalled.
There were no instruments, music, music stands or even band students.
“You don’t get a chance, very often,” to start a band program from scratch, Romines said, noting because of the generosity of parents, such as John Faris and Bob Petrone, KCHS was able to get equipment and other needs.
“We wouldn’t be here without them,” he added.
In Romines’ first year of band being offered as a class, he had 11 students participating — now he has 35.
“The numbers are down this year because of the (corona virus),” he said, but added, “A big reason it is as strong as it is, is because of the work that (Shaun Schuetz, SJN band director) does at St. John Neumann. ... Right now, I think that is the only foundation school that has a band program.”
