Directors

Director of Bands
Colbert Page Howell, Jr

Colbert Page Howell, Jr. has served on the Vero Beach High School Faculty since the fall of 2006 when he was appointed Associate Director of Bands. In July of 2016, he became the Director of Bands at VBHS. Howell’s duties at Vero Beach include team - teaching the symphonic bands, Fighting Indians Marching Band, and jazz bands, and conducting the Chamber Winds. Mr. Howell also administrates the entire band program and serves as chair of the VBHS Performing Arts Department. Ensembles under his direction have received consistent superior ratings and have performed at the Florida Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference, the National Band and Orchestra Festival in Carnegie Hall, the University of South Carolina Band Clinic, the Music for All National Concert Band Festival, the University of Florida Band Invitational, the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl, and the London New Year’s Day Parade. The VBHS Band was awarded the National Band Association Blue Ribbon Award of Excellence for the Southern Division in 2017. In addition to his duties at Vero Beach High School, Mr. Howell currently serves as conductor and music director of the Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra and is the founder and conductor of the Treasure Coast Wind Ensemble. Mr. Howell served as the Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at Indian River State College from 2012 until 2017. Prior to Vero Beach, Mr. Howell taught middle school band in North Carolina.

Mr. Howell earned his BM in Education from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he studied conducting with John Locke and Clarinet with Kelly Burke. He earned the Master of Music Degree from Louisiana State University where he studied conducting and wind literature with Frank Wickes and Music Education with James Byo and Evelyn Orman. 

From 1999 until 2012 Howell served as a rehearsal assistant, musicianship class instructor, and conductor at the UNCG Summer Music Camp. In 2012 he was inducted into the UNCG Summer Music Camp Staff Hall of Fame. Mr. Howell is a certified adjudicator for the Florida Bandmasters Association and has presented clinics and written articles on chamber wind literature, band intonation, and the Yamaha Harmony Director. From 2008 until 2013, Howell served as Chairman of District 13 of the Florida Bandmasters Association and was a member of the Executive Board. He has served as a member of the FBA Solo and Ensemble Music committee. In 2015 and 2017, Mr. Howell received the National Band Association Citation of Excellence Award. In 2017 he was one of the first recipients of the FBA Andrew Jack Crew Award. He is a member of NAFME, FMEA, FBA, NBA, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Mr. Howell currently resides in Vero Beach.

Associate Director of Bands
Sean Srigley

Sean Srigley is the Associate Director of Bands at Vero Beach High School. He received a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Central Florida. Prior to Vero Beach High School, Mr. Srigley was the Director of Bands at Storm Grove Middle School, Gifford Middle School, and Oslo Middle School in Vero Beach. While at Gifford Middle School, the Band was selected to perform at the Florida Southern College Middle School Band Symposium in 2008. Mr. Srigley was also selected as the Teacher of the Year from Storm Grove Middle School in 2020.

Mr. Srigley is a lifelong resident of Vero Beach and a graduate of Vero Beach High School. He was a member of the Vero Beach High School Band under the direction of Jim and Sheila Sammons. Sean and his wife Niki have two boys, Ryan, a VBHS graduate and student at FAU, and Garrett, a current student at VBHS.

Director of Bands Emeritus
James M. Sammons

James M. Sammons retired as the Director of Bands in 2016 a position he held since 1980. Mr. Sammons is a native of Colquitt, Georgia and graduated from Miller County High School in 1972. He received his Bachelor of Music Education from Troy University in 1976 and was a member of the famed “Sound of the South” Band under the direction of Dr. John M. Long.

Mr. Sammons is a life member of the Florida Bandmasters Association, serving the FBA for eighteen years in a variety of positions at the district and state level including District Secretary, District Chairperson, Solo and Ensemble Chairperson. Mr. Sammons served as President of the Florida Bandmasters Association from 1996-1998. He is also a member of the Florida Music Educators Association, the National Association for Music Education and the National Band Association. Mr. Sammons was inducted into the Florida Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame in November of 2013 and was featured the School Band and Orchestra Magazine in April 2114.

Mr. Sammons began his career at Goshen High School in Goshen, Alabama (1974-1976) as Director of Bands (including all instrumental activities, grades 4 through 12) while completing his undergraduate studies at Troy University. During his tenure with the Goshen High School Band, the band appeared at the Alabama Bandmasters Association State Concert Festival for the first time in school history. From 1976-1980, Sammons served as Director of Bands at Walton High School in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. The Walton High School Band consistently received superior ratings at both marching and concert band festivals and appeared at the Florida Bandmasters Association State Concert Festival on three occasions, the first such appearances by the band in over 25 years.

Mr. Sammons is an active adjudicator and clinician for state and national events.

He has been recognized as the Indian River County Teacher of the Year and has received Official Proclamations and Citations from the City Council of Vero Beach, the Indian River County Board of Commissioners, the Veterans Council of Indian River County, the Legislature of the State of Florida, and the Office of the Governor of the State of Florida. He has been awarded the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association and the Southeastern United States Concert Band Clinic. Mr. Sammons has also been honored by the Indian River County Association of School Administrators’ with the Best of the Best Award and has received the Principal’s Award for Excellence from Vero Beach High School.

In addition to his duties as Director of Bands at Vero Beach High School, he serves as Chairman of the VBHS Performing Arts Department and Coordinator of Instrumental Music for the Indian River County Schools. He has been married to Mrs. Priscilla Sammons since 1999, working with him as an integral member of the VBHS Band Staff and serving as Director of Auxiliary units since 1995. His son, Dr. Michael Sammons, D.M.A., a 1998 graduate of Vero Beach High School and member of the VBHS Band, currently serves on the percussion faculty at the University of Utah.

Percussion Director
Daniel Greenwood

Mr. Greenwood is in his eighth year as the Percussion Director at Vero Beach High School. He is a 2012 graduate of VBHS and was highly active as a member of the Fighting Indians Band. He attended the University of South Florida where he studied percussion with Robert McCormick. At USF, he performed with the McCormick Percussion Group, the Herd of Thunder Drumline, was a featured percussionist with the Symphonic Band, and Co-Principal Percussionist of the Wind Ensemble. Under his direction, VBHS Percussionists have continued to receive superior ratings at the Solo & Ensemble MPA and in the Percussion caption at Marching MPA. During his time as the Percussion Director, he has made multiple appearances at the annual “Red, White, and Blue” concerts, including performing a xylophone feature with the combined VBHS Concert Bands, guest conducting the Symphonic band, and sitting in to perform with the Jazz Band. In addition to his duties for the VBHS Percussion Program, he serves as the Director of Bands at Gifford Middle School, with most of his students becoming members of the Fighting Indians Band. He graduated Cum Laude in 2015 with his Bachelor of Science in Music Education and holds professional affiliations with NAfME, FMEA, FBA, and the Percussive Arts Society (PAS). He is the former Teacher of the Year for Gifford Middle School, a two-time grant recipient of the Education Foundation of Indian River County’s High Impact Grant Program, and has the unique perspective of watching students start their instrumental career in his band room, then working alongside them in their high school band careers, all the way through their graduation.