Band Directors
Ryan Fitchpatrick
Director of Bands
Ryan Fitchpatrick is currently the director of bands at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama. He attended Jacksonville State University where he earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree. He then served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Alabama where he earned a Master of Music Education. Mr. Fitchpatrick is in his twenty fifth year of teaching as a high school director. Prior to serving at Hoover, he was the director of bands at Oak Grove High School in Oak Grove, Alabama. While at Oak Grove he helped lead the program to such accomplishments as Bands of America Super Regional Class Champion and performing at the Alabama Music Educators Association Conference.
While serving as the director at Hoover High School for the past fifteen years, the band program has received superior ratings consistently. Under his leadership the marching band has grown to membership exceeding 350. The competition marching band has been a finalist at BOA regionals on numerous occasions as well as 4A class champion at the Jacksonville BOA regional. Mr. Fitchpatrick has conducted Hoover’s top jazz ensemble at the 66th, 72nd, and 77th Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. He has led the Hoover “Symphonic Winds” to premier performances at numerous honor band festivals and National Adjudicators Invitational, Grand NAI. The ensemble has also been a featured band at the 2017 Music for All National Concert Band Festival and the College Band Directors National Association Conference in 2019.
Mr. Fitchpatrick has served on the Alabama Bandmasters Association Executive Board as District IV Chairman. His professional affiliations include the National Association for Music Education, Alabama Music Educators Association, Alabama Bandmasters Association, National Band Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Kappa Delta Pi. He has been featured as one of School Band & Orchestra’s “50 Directors Who Make a Difference” as well as the recipient of the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence. Additionally, Mr. Fitchpatrick has enjoyed performing with the Birmingham based, Super Jazz Orchestra and Alabama Winds, a statewide community band.
Mr. Fitchpatrick lives in Hoover with his wife Adrian, son Brayden, and daughters Kinsley and Ellerey.
Sally Vines White
Sallie Vines White teaches full-time at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama. Mrs. White has been teaching in the Hoover City School System since 1990. She teaches the award-winning Hoover High School First Edition Jazz Band, Hoover Jam Jazz Band, Symphonic Band, and AP Music Theory. She is also an associate director with the marching band.
The groups she conducts have consistently received Superior ratings at contests including District, State, and Jazz Contests. The Hoover First Edition Jazz Ensemble performed at The Midwest Clinic in Chicago December 2018 and also in December 2012. They were a featured performer in 2014 at the Jazz Education Network Conference in Dallas, TX. In 2017, First Edition was selected to open for Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s concert in Birmingham, Alabama.
First Edition has also received national recognition through its selection five times as a finalist in the Savannah Music Festival Swing Central Contest. Prior to that they were selected into the North Texas Jazz Festival and have received all Superior ratings the numerous times they have attended the Loyola Jazz Festival in New Orleans. Many of her students through the years have been selected into the Alabama All State Jazz bands. This past year 16 members of her jazz bands were selected to the Alabama All State Jazz Bands. There have been numerous guests clinic and/or perform with her groups through the years including Jeff Coffin, Wycliffe Gordon, Marcus Printup, Tom Walsh, Andy Martin, John Fedchock, Chuck Redd, Jim Pugh and many others.
Sallie Vines White graduated magna cum laude from Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana in 1982, with a B.A. in Music, Music Education and Psychology. In 1985, she received her M.M.E. in Music Education from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN where she graduated “with distinction”. She studied Jazz at IU with David Baker and Dominic Spera. In addition to teaching, Sallie is an active performer on all the woodwind instruments. She has played engagements as a side musician with Stevie Wonder, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Andy Williams, Joan Rivers, Ray Charles, Linda Eder, the Bill Gaither Trio and many others. She has performed as a musician in over 135 theatre productions in the state of Alabama. Sallie has played numerous engagements with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra on saxophone. She plays lead alto in the Superjazz Big Band, and tenor saxophone in the Cahaba Saxophone Quartet. She toured for several years in various groups including Bridge, the Bill Gaither Trio, and college groups performing in 47 states and 17 countries.
In addition to performing and her full-time teaching position, Mrs. White was formerly the saxophone instructor at Samford University for many years and has taught part-time in the past at a number of the universities around Birmingham including Birmingham Southern, UAB, Samford, and Montevallo. Mrs. White is married to Noah and has three children and five grandchildren.
Matthew Cicero
Assistant Band Director
Education
Bachelor of Science in Music Education from The University of Alabama
Master of Music Education from The University of Alabama
Experience
Mr. Cicero is in his 12th year of teaching. Prior to teaching at Hoover, he was the Band Director at Hamilton High School in Hamilton, AL.
Bio
Matthew Cicero is currently in his tenth year as Associate Director of Bands at Hoover High School. He received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from The University of Alabama. He was a Graduate Assistant with the Music Education Department and an Adjunct Graduate Assistant with the Million Dollar Band. While in college, he was an active performer with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Winds, and Huxford Symphony Orchestra. He was a Graduate Director of the Campus Band, a community band based in Tuscaloosa, as well as an active clinician and private teacher.
Mr. Cicero is the Director of Concert Band I, and Jazz Band 3 (JB3). He also assists with the Hoover Marching Programs. The competition marching band has been a finalist at BOA regionals on numerous occasions as well as 2018 4A class champion at the Jacksonville BOA regional. His concert groups consistently receive superior ratings at adjudication events and perform at numerous local venues. JB3 performed at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 2017, Loyola Jazz Festival in 2018 and 2022, and the JENerations Jazz Festival in 2020.
Prior to his position at Hoover High School, he was Director of Bands at Hamilton High School in Hamilton, AL.
Mr. Cicero is a member of the National Association for Music Education, Jazz Education Network, the Alabama Music Educators Association, and the Alabama Bandmasters Association. He lives in Helena with his wife, Jessica, and daughter, Adelynn.
Emily Monson
Assistant Band Director
Ms. Emily Monson is starting her first year as an Associate Band Director with the Hoover High School Band. After graduating from Sparkman High School, Ms. Monson went on to pursue her degree in music education from The University of North Alabama. During her time there she performed with a variety of ensembles including the wind ensemble, studio jazz band, symphonic band, woodwind quintet, flute quartet, and The Marching Pride, serving as a section leader.
Ms. Monson is also actively involved in the drum corps community, previously working on the brass staff with Southwind Drum & Bugle Corps and currently working with The Seattle Cascades. She is an alumnus of Music City Drum & Bugle Corps, marching mellophone in 2016 & 2018.
After finishing her degree, Ms. Monson taught for two years at W.S. Neal Middle & High School, in Brewton, Alabama. She then went on to spend the last two years working as a graduate teaching assistant and earning her Master’s degree from The University of Alabama, working with the music education department and the Million Dollar Band.
Alicia Wilbanks
Buccanette Coach
Mrs. Wilbanks has studied dance throughout her life. Her experience at Hoover began when she interned in the HHS Dance Department in 2010. She returned to the Hoover Dance Department in the summer and fall of 2011 as a long-term substitute teacher while continuing to teach and choreograph throughout the Hoover and Birmingham areas. She worked with Charity Jones to start a Junior Varsity dance team program at HHS and became the Junior Varsity Buccanette Coach in 2012. For the next three years, she worked as a Dance Teaching Artist through the Cultural Alliance of Birmingham teaching math and language arts integration through dance in many Birmingham City Elementary Schools while also coaching at Hoover. She currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Trace Crossings Alabama Arts Education Initiative, is a member of the Alabama K12 Dance Educator Network, and is a member of the Board of Directors for African Children’s Mission, a non-profit organization working in East Africa. She began teaching dance full-time at Hoover High in 2016 and moved to the Varsity Buccanette Coach position in 2017.
Mrs. Wilbanks enjoys spending time with her family; her husband, Wes, twin daughters, Katie Mae & Ashley, son, Wyatt, and dogs, Gidget & Bear. When she isn’t at Hoover High or with the dance team, she is usually reading a good book, talking about Uganda, or watching Netflix.
Alex Jacobs
Alex has a long history in the marching arts, starting his journey playing trumpet throughout high school and marching two years with The University of Alabama Million Dollar Band. It was in the band that he met a friend that would decide to start a local independent winter guard and hand Alex a flag. The rest is history!
Alex performed with Amor Winterguard from 2008-2009, Atlanta CV 2017, 2019, and 2021, and most recently Etude Winterguard in 2020.
Alex is in his 4th year serving as the Director of the Hoover Color guard program and his 17th year of teaching overall. Alex has worked with several programs throughout Alabama including Fort Payne High School, John Carroll Catholic High School, and numerous Tuscaloosa County schools. He was also on staff with finalist Divenire Winterguard.
His newest adventure will begin in 2024 as the Color Guard Caption Head for Atlanta CV – 2024 season. We are very excited to have Alex as our Color Guard Director!
