H-F alumni bring their sounds to the homecoming field

Jo Greep
Sep 24
3 min read

September 24, 2025

Corey O’Donnell brought his trumpet. Jeremy Wesley had his alto sax, and Jen Bilinski her clarinet.

They and about a dozen other former Viking band members walked out onto the field Friday, Sept. 19, to perform with the marching band during half-time at the Homewood-Flossmoor High School homecoming football game wearing T-shirts that announced them as band alumni.

It’s the second time Band Director Sarah Whitlock invited alums back to play for homecoming. She’s been the band director since 2009, but the alums didn’t need to be her students. She welcomes all past band members to the party.

“Band is such a community,” she said, and social media makes it easier to reconnect. The idea of making alumni part of the program “is a good way to get people back to the community and have them see what we’re doing and give back to H-F.”

Photo features three Homewood-Flossmoor High band alumni, all in red shirts and smiling at the camera. — *Homewood-Flossmoor High band alumni, from left, Jeremy Wesley, Corey O’Donnell and Kalynn Hunter were among the alumni at the band reunion Sept. 19. (Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)*

Many saw and admired the new, large band space in the Fine and Performing Arts Center for the first time since it opened in 2021.

“I thought our room was gorgeous, now this is just outstanding,” Bilinski said. The former band space was converted into an art room.

Several of the graduates continued in music after graduation. O’Donnell, H-F class of 1993, majored in music at Eastern Illinois University. Cameron Elam-Guthrie, H-F class of 2023, is a music major at Northern Illinois University where he plays his bass trombone in the NIU marching band. Alto sax player Jemil Hunter, H-F class of 2021, graduated in May as a music major from Columbia College Chicago.

Band for these alumni was a special time in their lives. It’s what brings them back to H-F.

“I always waited after school for practices, and our games I was always excited to finally perform the moves that we’d been practicing so long,” Hunter said. For him, it was “a way of giving the Viking spirit.”

HF alum Jen Bilinski smiles at the camera, wearing a red Alumni Reunion t-shirt and holding a clarinet. — *H-F alum Jen Bilinski, who played clarinet with the marching band, sometimes practices with her daughter, Layla Rogan, who is now a member of the Viking band. (Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)*

HF alumni Cameron Elam-Guthrie, and Jemil Hunter pose together. Both are facing the camera, smiling, and wearing their red Alumni Reunion t-shirts. One holds a bass trombone; the other an alto sax. — *Cameron Elam-Guthrie, left, with his bass trombone, and Jemil Hunter with his alto sax, were among H-F band alumni who performed during the homecoming half-time program. (Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)*

“I felt like I should have paid rent for how much I lived at H-F,” Bilinski said. “I was in band and color guard. I made lifelong friends, couple of them their children are now in band with my daughter and that’s fun.”

And then there were the international trips. Band, choir and orchestra were on a three-year rotating schedule. Those trips ended with the pandemic, but O’Donnell said they were the highlight of band for him. He got to go twice touring England, Scotland and Ireland in 1993, and a second trip to Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Allison Hoover-Kinne, H-F class of 2003, played flute and piccolo on the Great Wall of China during her overseas trip.

Kalynn Turner, H-F class of 2013, played clarinet with the band. She didn’t bring her instrument to join in the homecoming performance. Turner said she came back that evening “because of Mrs. Whitlock.”

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