Shawn Lenney has created a new kind of excitement at Madison High School.

In just a few years, he has turned Madison’s once non-competitive marching band into one of the area’s best, and one of the school’s most popular extra curricular activities, with about one-fourth of the high school’s 1,500 students participating in band.

“It’s exciting to be a part of the band nowadays,” Lenney said Monday as he walked into the Madison High band room during lunch time. About 30 students were milling about, voluntarily practicing during their lunch period.

“These kids are great. They’re not here because I told them to be here. They’re here because they love to play music,” he said. “That’s special when you have kids who feel that way.”

Lenney is in his fifth year as the high school band director at Madison. He spent seven years as the band director at Waynesville High School, then another two years as the district’s junior high principal.

“But I missed working with the kids,” Lenney said.

“Their talent wasn’t bad at all,” Lenney said of those early days. “They were smaller and different from what we have today, and they were non-competitive. They’d practice for 30 minutes once a week and that was it.”

Now, the entire marching band practices for two hours in the evening every week; the percussion section practices an additional two hours every week; and the color guard practices for three hours every week.

And the hard work is paying off.

The marching band earned an “Excellent” rating this year for its “Twisted Terror” performance at the Ohio Music Education Championships.

Their “Superior” rating — the highest rating a band can attain — in the regional competition qualified them to the state competition. It was the school district’s first appearance ever at the state competition.

Their success is sparking school spirit, too. Students, teachers, parents, administrators and community members packed Brandenburg Stadium for the band’s final dress rehearsal before the state competition.

“That’s something we’ll never forget,” Lenney said. “Usually, we’re kind of the number two attraction (behind the football team) on Friday nights. But that meant a lot when the community packed the stadium just to see us.”

Lenney’s leadership and a focus on practice have contributed to the band’s success, students said.

“The biggest change is in the people in the band. We used to be a dysfunctional family, but Mr. Lenney’s changed all that,” said Brandon Fowler, a senior and field commander for the marching band. “It’s a social activity, but we’re here to practice and improve.”

Field commanders Cassidy Venema and Sophia Mullins said Lenney emphasizes those improvements each week with a list of positives he hangs on his classroom door.

“I came here my sophomore year and didn’t even know how to play music, but Mr. Lenney gave me the opportunity to be a a field commander,” Mullins said. “Just giving me that responsibility has inspired me to take my music education farther, and now I have a passion for it.”

“Band is the thing to do around here at Madison,” Venema said.

During the marching band’s fall banquet Monday evening, Lenney surprised the students by announcing the 2013 halftime performances would feature music from “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

“We just wanted to surprise them,” he said about the announcement, which is traditionally made in February. “The kids have been all over me about doing it, and I’ve always told them ‘No, no, no, no. The music’s too hard,’ ” he laughed.