Rockwood Summit Grad Hits all the High Notes in Final Year at Ohio State
Andrew Boden basked in the glow of a college experience well spent as he stood on the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 20.
Boden, a 2021 Rockwood Summit High graduate, had just finished off his four-year career playing the sousaphone – the marching-band version of a tuba – at the Ohio State University in just about the best way possible: performing at the 2025 College Football Playoff National Championship as the Buckeyes defeated the University of Notre Dame for the title.
“It was incredible,” Boden said. “After four years, there is no greater way to go out. Being on the field, there was just no bigger stage. Obviously, the band was very happy to be there, but I’m really happy for the team and coaches because they really put together a show at the end.”
And that wasn’t even the highlight of Boden’s tenure with the Ohio State Marching Band. That came four months earlier, when he was chosen to dot the “i” during “Script Ohio” in the pre-game festivities at the Buckeyes’ Sept. 21 home game against Marshall.
Dotting the “i” is one of the band’s most treasured traditions, in which a fourth- or fifth-year sousaphone player follows the drum major as the band members march into the formation of a cursive “Ohio” on the field. The sousaphone player then breaks off to be the “dot” on the “i,” tipping his cap to the crowd and bowing as, in Boden’s case, more than 103,000 fans cheer.
That included family members from Missouri, Texas, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. You can see a first-hand view of Boden’s trip through “Script Ohio” at this link.
“Seeing all those people I really care about make the effort to come out and all my classmates being there, it was quite an experience,” he said. “The stakes were very high, but it was totally worth it. I will never forget it, and we’ll always be able to share that moment together.”
Boden said his mother helped instill a love of music in him and his three siblings. His sister, Olivia (Rockwood Summit Class of 2016), also played in the marching band at Ohio State, and his other sister, Alexandria (Rockwood Summit Class of 2018), did the same at Indiana University.
Andrew started out as a clarinet player at Rockwood South Middle and, after a few months, switched to saxophone. After a year with the Rockwood Summit marching band, he was ready for another change.
“I was looking at all the other trumpet, trombone and tuba players, and I was like, ‘I want to play a brass instrument.’ You get to play louder, and I thought it seemed cooler,” he said. “Thankfully, they needed some tuba players as well. With the help of a senior at the time, I switched, and I never looked back. It was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made.”
Boden deepened his love of music at Rockwood Summit and experienced unforgettable moments, such as when the Silver Falcons achieved the rare feat of advancing to the finals of the St. Louis Bands of America competition when he was a freshman and Alexandria was in the band with him.
He also sought out challenges in the classroom and started down the path of being an industrial and systems engineering major at Ohio State. He is on track to graduate this spring.
“Taking a bunch of AP classes with the teachers we had at Summit, that really prepared me for college,” Boden said. “More importantly, they gave me the curiosity to want to learn all these things. Within engineering, I haven’t had to take too many classes about history, art of foreign languages. But those were some of my favorite classes in high school because we were learning about other cultures, other governments. The most important thing academically that Summit provided was a curiosity to learn about other things.
“I like the problem-solving aspect of engineering. When you get out of bed in the morning, you’re something that actively requires you to be at your best and challenges you. That’s something I learned from my dad is applying your best every day.”
Boden said his teachers and coaches at Rockwood Summit also helped impress upon him how to deal with success as well as struggles. He played one year of basketball and three years of water polo before joining the cross country team for his senior year, turning the challenge of COVID-19 health restrictions into the positive of taking up a new, fun activity with a group of his friends.
“It was one of those things where, in the moment, we didn’t get the result we wanted, but we still took full advantage of the opportunity,” he said. “It’s something that definitely can be applied in life as well. You may not control everything, but you do control how you react to it. It’s one of those things where we reacted in the best way possible, and we got a great season out of it. So that was awesome.”
After graduation, Boden hopes to return to the St. Louis area and start his career in operations or process improvement. He is also thinking about ways in which he can continue cultivating his love of music. Boden plans to continue participating in the annual TubaChristmas tradition locally and hopes to also explore concert band opportunities.
After enjoying such positive experiences at Rockwood Summit and Ohio State, he is eager to find ways to continue hitting the high notes – figuratively – while playing the tuba.
“If you play in an ensemble, you develop a lot of respect for the people around you. It sounds amazing, and you realize how much dedication everyone has to have to come together,” Boden said. “And it’s great to be a Buckeye. For anybody in Rockwood, make the jump and check out Ohio State. It’s totally worth it. The opportunities you get there, the people you meet and the alumni base, they’ll stay with you forever.”
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