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15 Minutes with David Sycks PHOTO October 11, 2025 Last football home game BHS Marching Band under the direction of David Sycks.
By Betsy Werling David Sycks has served as the band director for Bluffton High School for 32 years, almost his entire teaching career.
He retired following the 2025-2026 academic year.
Hes also been playing the trumpet for 52 years, despite initially being encouraged to play a different instrument.
Who is David Sycks? I grew up in Coshocton, Ohio, which is South of Canton.
I went to undergraduate at Capital University in Columbus and received my degree in Jazz Studies and Trumpet Performance.
I then went on to Indiana University in Bloomington and received my Masters Degree in Jazz Studies and Trumpet Performance.
I was planning to be the next Doc Severinsen, the trumpet player for the Tonight Show Band starring Johnny Carson.
Doc retired a few years ago and just turned 99.
Who were your parents and do you have siblings? I was born January 3, 1964, to Richard and Martha Sycks.
Both were born and raised in Coshocton.
I have one older brother, Jeff, who lives in Coshocton.
Mom was a stay-at-home mom.
Dad was a Purchasing Agent for Clow Water Systems, which is now McWane Poles.
They make clay pipes for underground drainage systems.
Later, he became a Manager at Steel Ceilings.
When Mom started to show signs of dementia, he retired and took care of her.
Tell me about your wife and children.
Linda and I met at Capital University (she was an oboe major - music education).
Her freshman year was my junior year.
We started dating near the end of my senior year and were married in Mansfield July 15, 1989.
We just celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary! We have three daughters, Jane, Emily and Megan.
Jane and her wife Grace live in New York, and both have positions on Broadway.
Jane plays the trumpet at various venues, and Grace is a Broadway hairdresser.
Emily and her husband Jake live in Charleston, SC.
Emily is an elementary teacher at a Montessori school, and her husband Jake works for a doggy daycare that boards and cares for upwards of 60 dogs.
Megan and her boyfriend Liam live in Ann Arbor, MI and both work for the University of Michigan.
Megan is a Career Counselor in the School of Education and Liam works in the transportation department.
We just had all our kids here, and that hasnt happened in years.
What was the first instrument you learned? I guess my first instrument was a ukulele, and for two weeks I played the clarinet.
I was about 10 years old, and the High School Jazz Band came and played a concert for the Middle School.
There was an amazing trumpet player who came out and played a jazz solo.
I came home that night and told my mom I wanted to play the trumpet.
She looked around and found an old clarinet on a shelf.
I played the clarinet for two weeks and did not like it.
It was not as popular as it is today.
My dad and I visited the MS Band Director, and dad told him that I wanted to play the trumpet.
You have to remember this was halfway through the year.
The band director looked at me and took me by the mouth.
He said you dont have the right lips for trumpet, why dont you try saxophone.
I told him that I wanted to play the trumpet and he told me okay, but remember you dont have the right set up for the trumpet.
In the end, my dad found a used trumpet at a garage sale and I was able to play the trumpet.
The band director was wrong because Ive been playing the trumpet for 52 years now.
How many years did you teach? In fall of 1992, I went to Wright State University to get my teaching certification.
I never entered the classroom until I was 28.
I taught two years in Middletown as the Band Director, then a position at Bluffton opened up, and I took the job.
Total years of teaching for me was 34, with 32 of those years being in Bluffton.
I came to Bluffton and we fell in love with the community.
I did not realize I would spend the rest of my career in one place.
Tell me how you ended up in Bluffton.
Linda and her family grew up in New York.
They moved to the Shawnee area when she was in 7th grade, then to the Mansfield area when she was a freshman.
Years later, a Lima area friend of Linda's mother (Jean Braden) called Jean to tell her of a band job that was going to open up in Bluffton and that Linda should apply for it.
Jean told her that we had just had a baby (Jane) and that Linda had decided to stay home.
She said she would pass the information along to me, though, since she knew we were looking to get closer (geographically) to family.
We had to get our atlas out (this was before Google, you know...) to see where Bluffton was, and decided to apply.
I got an interview, and by the time we got back to Dayton, there was a message on the machine offering me the job! He said I was one of 90 applicants for the position! What is your best memory from your time at Bluffton? Well, that is hard because I have so many good memories.
I had a great Senior Class my first year and I could ask questions like, What is the Bath Band Spectacular thing? What do you mean we are playing for the Memorial Day Parade? I do remember my fourth year in, I had a group of Seniors that had been in the program since their Freshman year.
It was Senior Night and the announcer was calling out the Senior names and bringing their parents onto the field.
At the end, the announcer said we have one more Senior to announce.
And to my surprise, my parents came to the field.
I dont know how they ever found out who my parents were, but it was a very special memory.
That was fall of 1997.
And I would also say, when my own kids started coming through the program and watching them do their thing.
They are all musicians.
What would you tell someone who is playing an instrument for the first time? I would say, theres no magic wand.
Persistence.
We live in a society of instant gratification.
If you want a cup of coffee, you can get it.
Or if you want a burger, just go down the street.
But when you practice an instrument, what do you have to show for it? Tired lips, but if you look back over 6 months or a year, you can see yourself getting better.
Its a gradual, lifelong, multi-year process.
The key is to get better.
Kids nowadays have sports activities that they participate in, and so they focus and sometimes do that outside of the season.
With playing an instrument, you have to take your time and really want to do this.
Then, over time, you will look back and see how far you have come.
What do you do now that you are retired? I am still playing the trumpet.
I play in several bands: Swing Mania, Jerry Szabo Trio and a band called My Cousin Eddie.
Recently, I started playing with Tom Krouse in Columbus, who is the retired CEO of Donatos Pizza.
I started that gig because of one of my former students, Jesse Henry.
The trumpet player they had got busy, so now I play with them.
Some parting words? We came to Bluffton for a job, and then the community became so much more.
I have thought about being the Band Director at Bluffton for 32 years and still being in town after retirement.
It might have been difficult for a new director, but Im really happy with our choice in Andy Honse.
We are good friends and even stood in front of the band together several times.
I feel good that I will be able to go to games and see the students, but now they have a wonderful new director who can make it his own.
I was recently asked to help with a band camp coming up, so Im still doing things.
In retirement, you get all kinds of advice.
I will never forget a woman from that last performance at the Senior Citizen Breakfast said to me, No.
And I wasnt sure what she meant.
When she elaborated, she said now is the time to do what you want with your time and dont be afraid to say No.
That really stuck with me.
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