EllwoodCity.org will be highlighting some of the entertainers scheduled to perform at the Ellwood City Arts, Crafts and Foods Festival next month. Feature stories will be appearing over the next three weeks.
Bop Cats keep `coach’s’ memory alive
June 15, 2009
ECO Staff – Laure Cioffi, senior journalist
ELLWOOD CITY -- There was something magical about being a member of the original Beaver High School Bop Cats under the direction of William Klein Schwartz.
So much so, that his legacy lives on in The Swingin’ Bop Cats Big Band, one of this year’s performers at the Ellwood City Arts, Crafts and Foods Festival.
“He was more than an inspiration. He gave a lot of people a lot of opportunities. A lot of kids who played in the band went on to play professionally,” said Kirby Ashburn, an original Bop Cat from 1960s and one of the Swingin’ Bop Cats.
While many of Schwartz’s pupils went onto become professional musicians, the Swingin’ Bop Cats are strictly in it for the love of music and donate most of their earnings to the William K. Schwartz Memorial Award, an annual scholarship given to a Beaver Area High School band member going on to college to study music.
Ashburn said they were able to increase the scholarship amount to $1,000 in recent years because the 20-member orchestra has increased the number of performances. This is their second appearance at the Ellwood City Arts, Crafts and Foods Festival.
Nine members of the band were original Bop Cats in high school and the group’s director is Schwartz’s grandson, Bob Schwartz. Bob’s father and William’s son, Rich, is also a member of the Swingin’ Bop Cats.
Bob Schwartz, never knew his grandfather who passed in 1972, but he has a similar style when working on the band, Ashburn said.
“Some of his antics are eerily similar to coach,” Ashburn said using the nickname they used to refer to Schwartz in high school.
William K. Schwartz led the high school stage band from 1961 until his death in 1972 and in that time the band received a host of awards and honors.
Ashburn recalls that making the stage band was a prestigious honor and only the best musicians were chosen.
“Back then you either played sports or you were in the band. I was the first one to do both. This is my way of giving back to coach,” Ashburn said.
Ashburn, who plays the trumpet, described coach as a perfectionist who had a unique way of inspiring his performers.
“I just remember the sound that came out was so overly joyous,” Ashburn said of his high school stage band days.
Schwartz’s Bop Cats ceased existing by the 1980s and the some of the alumni got together in the mid-1990s to play together. That reunion eventually led to the creation of the current Swingin’ Bop Cats.
 They play mostly big band music with some classic rock mixed in.
Ashburn said they try at times to incorporate some of “Coach’s” signature style into the performances including the “Wood Choppers Ball” where they play moving their instruments up and down. They also occasionally use an introduction created by Schwartz where the musicians each run on stage playing a few notes as they are introduced.
“It was a big deal in high school. You don’t see it anywhere else. It was a very unique thing,” Ashburn said.
Ashburn said just about all of the Swingin’ Bop Cats are amateur musicians who work day jobs that range from mill workers to airplane pilots. Ashburn runs his own trucking company.
He said they play steadily from March through December each year keeping their memories of “coach” alive.
“We’re just a group of guys from Beaver County who love to play,” he said.
The Swingin’ Bop Cats are performing from 3 to 4 p.m. July 3 on the Folino Stage in Ewing Park.
(Laure Cioffi can be reached at LaureCioffi@EllwoodCity.org) |