“When I got to high school band I loved it, it was the most fun I’ve had in my whole life. So then I went from not wanting to do it at all in high school, to my sophomore year deciding I wanted to major in music and be a teacher,” said Nicholas Scroggins, first year band director for New Albany high school. His mother had made him try out for band in high school to his dismay but after a little while he realized it meant so much more to him.

“I started teaching at Parkview Middle School in Jeffersonville, I taught there for seven years. When I first got there the program was a mess. It was in a freefall, kids were dropping band and it was really bad.  I showed up on the first day and my seventh graders barely knew how to play five notes,” Scroggins said. “ It was a lot of work but I turned it around in those seven years. We went from having 100 kids to this year having 190.”

Scroggins, also known as “Scrogdog” by his students, is a lover of statistics and baseball games, especially the Cincinnati Reds. Scroggins performance experience includes a variety of venues across the United States and Europe.

“I had a lot of really, really great students. I was also in the unique situation of teaching them in middle school and helping them in high school band, so I’d see these same kids for seven years before they would graduate,” Scroggins said. “It’s neat to see them when they don’t even know how to put their instrument together at all, or know it exists, and then seeing them all the way to their senior year and graduate is a really cool experience.” 

“Being a band director is incredibly busy, I don’t think my wife likes that part of the job especially during the fall in marching band season,” Scroggins said. “It makes it hard because some days after working all day you’re drained and then you have to keep going for rehearsal for marching band or a basketball game or a football game, it makes things hard especially when you have a little baby at home.”

Scroggins more recently became a new father to a little girl with his wife who is also a teacher. 

“I feel like having a child has changed the way I teach now. Before, kids were just there with you in the room, it changed my perspective because now these aren’t just kids, this is someone else’s kid just like mine. It’s changed in a good way,” Scroggins said. “I think my daughter will be influenced because I am a band teacher. I’m going to heavily encourage my daughter to join band. I’m going to give her piano lessons as soon as I can but I’m definitely going to try to pull her into it.”

Throughout his career, he has been actively involved with the National Association for Music Education, the Indiana Bandmasters Association, the Indiana State School Music Association and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Indiana Music Education Association, according to the New Albany Band website.

“I love being able to make music with kids and everything but some days it doesn’t even feel like work,” Scroggins said. “Being able to see people make friends and build relationships as a spectator is one of the most rewarding things. Seeing how they grow over the years is something unique.”