Band as a Sport

Band as a sport- The Pride of Dixie Marching Band takes band to a new level as band camp begins with the band on one field and the football team next to them.

The Pride of Dixie Marching Band takes marching to a whole new level with the kick off of band camp, right beside the football team.

By Jessica McElvey

557 words

In many high schools, band is considered by non-band students to be easy and effortless. Band members experience much ridicule from fellow classmates, hearing things such as, “You’re a band geek,” or “Band isn’t a sport.” At the University of North Alabama, however, the Pride of Dixie Marching Band takes things up a few notches and puts band on a level compatible with sports.

Although band is not recognized as a sport, the effort put into a show by the Pride of Dixie Marching Band rivals the effort put into any other sport. College band requires high levels of concentration, it’s more than just walking around on a field. Marching and playing at the same time are not effortless. Andy Creasy of the trumpet line said, “When you can hold my trumpet at the exact height, march…in equal steps, at the correct speed, and play correctly, then you can call it eProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ortless.”

The work that the members put in competes easily with those efforts of the UNA football team with remarkable results. The week before classes begin the Pride of Dixie marching band spends nine days at band camp, working from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. The funny thing about band camp is that while the band marches and plays on one field, the football team is practicing on the field right next to them. The difference in the two activities is of course very wide, but they both take an extreme amount of work. The football team works out in weight room conditioning muscles, while the band works in the heat conditioning stomach muscles to help with playing. While the football team runs plays and practice passes, the band set formations and work on horn flashes. Both activities take the same amount of work, just in different forms.

During band camp band members work on how to hold instruments correctly, how to march in the correct style, and how to play in the correct style at the appropriate time. As the week moves along, it is time to put formations on the field. This is no easy task, with around two hundred and thirty, members knowing when and where each person is supposed to be. When that is done they work on sprucing up the show, adding certain steps and horn movements.

Once classes begin the POD officially practices everyday for either fifty minutes or an hour and fifteen minutes depending on the day. Unofficially, each section arrives at the practice field almost an hour beforehand to prepare for the intense practice ahead of them. During this time, each section will stretch, warm up by playing musical scales and work on any portion of the show that that specific sections needs improvement on. “It takes an incredible amount of work and discipline,” explains Callie Henderson of the clarinet section, “I think that’s what drives people to do it.”

When the band steps out onto the field each Saturday it is with the knowledge that they have worked extremely hard to put on a good show. While they may not be wearing shoulder pads and throwing a football around, they march rigid formations and push their bodies to limit playing instruments. Like all hard work, it pays off in the end result. “We practice just like everybody else,” Henderson says, “it’s just cooler when we show off.”