The Bearcat Marching Band — BMB — has been a staple of Saturday halftime entertainment at Northwest Missouri State University for decades.
This year will be no different, but the band now has a new director who is taking the program in some new directions.
Hired shortly after the end of the spring trimester, Douglas Overmier takes the place Carl Kling, who had served as the university's director of bands since 2004.
Leaving his family temporarily behind, Overmier made the move to Maryville from Carrollton, Ga., a 14-hour drive.
"We had planned to make Georgia our last move," Overmier said. "But with budget cuts across the board, Georgia got hit hard. The school I was at lost all of their graduate (music) programs and all scholarships."
Overmier said reassignments were being made within his department, and the risks of staying just got too high, so he began looking for another job...
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