Directors & Staff

Shannon Sandage is in her nineteenth year as a Texas band director.  An Arkansas native, she earned both her Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in Christian Ministries from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas in 2006.

After graduating, she moved to Texarkana, Texas where she began working at Pleasant Grove ISD as an Assistant Band Director.  During her nine years at Pleasant Grove, her Junior Varsity Middle School bands earned numerous awards at the UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contests.  Five high school woodwind players were named to the Texas All-State Band with two of them earning consecutive years in the band. While being the Jazz Band Director, several of her students were named to the Association of Texas Small School Bands Region 4 Jazz Band, and eight students advanced to the Area C auditions in the two years that the students competed in the audition process.  In 2015 under the direction of Ms. Sandage, the Pleasant Grove Winter Guard received the First Place Gold Medal in the North Texas Colorguard Association Regional A Championships.

Prior to joining the Tatum ISD band program, Ms. Sandage spent five years as the Director of Bands at Prairiland ISD in Pattonville, Texas, where her high school band earned a number of superior and excellence awards.  Most notable is in 2015, when the Patriot Pride Marching Band advanced to the 3A Texas State UIL Marching Contest.  This was the first time for the band to advance to a state level competition.  In 2016, two soloists were named Texas State Solo and Ensemble Outstanding Performers. Under Ms. Sandage’s direction, there have been multiple members from Prairiland named to the Texas All-State Band. 

In 2018, Ms. Sandage continued her education by earning a Master of Music degree from Texas A&M - Commerce in Commerce, Texas.  As an active saxophone and bassoonist around Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, she has played with: The Bill Causey Big Band, Texarkana Jazz Orchestra, and the Northeast Texas Saxophone Quartet.  She has played with artists such as The Temptations, The Four Tops, and Joan Rivers.  She is a musician with the East Texas Symphonic Band.   

Ms. Sandage is an active member of Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, Association of Texas Small School Bands, Four States Bandmasters Association, National Band Association, Women Band Directors International, and North American Saxophone Alliance. 

Marisha George for the past eleventh years was the twirling sponsor/director of the THS and TMS Twirlers.  In 2025, Ms. Marisha decided to take a step back from being the sponsor/director to being the twirl choreographer for both the THS and TMS twirl groups.  

She is a graduate of Tatum High School where she twirled from 7th grade until 12th grade serving as drum major her senior year. She continued her twirling career as a Kilgore College Twirler and teaches at the Tops in Twirling Camp held at KC every summer. 

By day, Ms. Marisha is a speech-language pathologist serving the pediatric population in the home health setting. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em Horns!) and master's degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. 

Ms. Marisha lives in Tatum with her husband, Keoun, and son, Kyson. Her daughter, Keira (2025 Tatum graduate) has gone on to become one of the feature twirls at the University of Houston.  We are beyond thrilled that Ms. Marisha has agreed to continue to work with our amazing group of twirlers.