ROGERS — Editor’s Note: This is the ninth in a season-long series on people involved in Friday night football. The series will highlight those who play key roles in making high school football a special event each week in small towns and big cities across Northwest Arkansas.

Nathan Aronowitz has been on center stage since he was 13 years old.

Whether jamming on Dickson Street or on Beall Street in Memphis with his blues band, Nathan A Blues, or with the praise band at Central United Methodist Church in Rogers, Aronowitz has been in the spotlight since a young age.

He has even twice appeared on the King Biscuit Time radio show, which has aired since 1941.

But the Rogers High honors student is also very much at home and out of the spotlight when he’s playing with the Mounties Marching Band. It’s on Friday nights that Aronowitz uses his music skills to support the Mounties football team.

“It’s very fun being with everyone because everyone loves playing in the RHS marching band,” Aronowitz said. “It’s definitely a load off playing music that I am not driving. To not being a singer and laying back and focusing in and just playing is fun.”

This year has been especially satisfying.

Rogers is back in the playoffs for the first time, and the Mounties have posted a winning record for the first time since 2007 heading into tonight’s 7 p.m. playoff game at Conway.

In Aronowitz’s first three seasons in a Rogers band uniform, the football team won a combined four games.

“School spirit is a big thing,” Aronowitz said. “It’s great that we are having a great year. It makes the game more intense, and the winning definitely fuels the music.”

Aronowitz, who has a 4.1 grade point average that includes a heavy load of advanced placement classes, never thought about giving up one of his musical gigs. He said he needs just one thing to stay on track.

“A planner,” Aronowitz said. “Music is what I do. To not do music, there would be a hole. Sometimes it is hard to juggle, but this is what I do.”

Aronowitz has been involved with music since he was five, and he got a harmonica when he was 10. He also plays the guitar and piano.

“It’s funny how all this music has been around me my entire,” Aronowitz said. “I also play the drums a little, which is a product of the Rogers School District.”

Aronowitz cut his first album with producer Dan Robinson when he was 13, leading to the creation of his current band.

“We had a chance to create an album and that album was me playing all the instruments over dubbed,” Aronowitz said. “Dan Robinson, he has really helped me out, played the drums in the recording. Dan then said, ‘We need to take this stuff live.’’

The Rev. Les Oliver is the Minister of Music and Worship at Central United Methodist Church, and he said Aronowitz has remained humble despite all his successes in music and in the classroom.

“Nathan is just a super kid, a multi-talented young man,” Oliver said. “With everything he has going on, he has remained a kid that is level-headed. For a lot of kids, it would be easy to be boastful. Nathan has remained humble.”

Aronowitz’s first live performance was at George’s in Fayetteville when he was 13 with a band he put together for the event. His current band still plays at various venues in Northwest Arkansas and outside the area.

Aronowitz went on stage that first time around 10 p.m., and he will never forget the experience.

“It was great,” Aronowitz said. “We were, ‘Oh my gosh, look at all these crazy people.’ We never had been around a mass of people that were having that much fun. We had the time of our lives. The cool thing about the Fayetteville crowd, they are very open and very receptive.”

Aronowitz and the band play almost every week, and they recently played again during Bikes, Blues & BBQ in Fayetteville.

“In September, it was like two gigs a week,” Aronowitz said.

And one gig almost every Friday night during football season.