Throughout every home varsity football game, the marching band sits on the bleachers and plays stand tunes. They also perform half time shows at every game.
One of the pieces the band plays is called “Seven Nation Army,” a common favorite. “[My favorite song to play is] Seven Nation Army because it’s loud and exciting,” freshman Leah Kim said.
The now large marching band was not always like this. “When I started, we had about twenty kids in the marching band, and now it’s pretty huge,” marching band director Dr. Peter Perry said.
To keep up with all of their pieces, in addition to the one or two practices a week, the marching band members commit to practicing their instruments at home with direction from music sent through emails. “[I practice] an hour on certain days,” Kim said.
The band started their season in the last week of summer with band camp. “We unfortunately only had three days, so we aren’t able to work that much but it’s a good introduction for all the incoming members to learn the basics of the marching band and get our first sounds as an ensemble,” senior drum major Liam Wagner said.
The marching band practices at least once a week and sometimes twice a week if there is a game, as they also practice on the day of the game. On a day with a game, the marching band will typically practice in the bus loop for an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half. They then get a dinner break to get food.
After the dinner break, everyone gets into their uniforms and returns to the parking lot. Everyone then marches onto the football field to play the national anthem. Following the anthem, they march onto the bleachers and play through the first and second quarters of the game.
“[Afterwards] we have a halftime show, we have third quarter off, and then we play out the rest of the game, fourth quarter, and then we march out,” senior drum major Alexandra Turk said.
During the football games, the marching band plays on the sidelines. Drum majors Alexandra Turk and Liam Wagner, who both are the student conductors of the marching band, have specific guidelines on when to signal the marching band to play a stand tune. These guidelines include not playing while the RM team has the ball, but being allowed to play when the other team has the ball and playing “Victory March” when RM scores or does something good.
Additionally, Dr. Perry will often tell Turk and Wagner to signal the band and tell them which of the eight stand tunes to play. The main goal of the sideline tunes is to excite the crowd. “To just hype up the band, hype up the crowd, have some fun, we’ll play our other stand tunes,” Turk said.
Turk and Wagner are titled drum majors, meaning they conduct. “[We are] pretty much like the captains of the band,” Turk said. They send emails with information, acting as the communicators between Dr. Perry and the band.
They also conduct during games and make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing during practices. “We are the ones who instruct all the drill to people,” Wagner said.
During halftime, the band currently has two songs that they play, which are “The Final Countdown” by Europe, Turk’s favorite, and “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. For each game, the band learns a slightly new routine.
Aside from the football games in the fall and the three pep rallies throughout the year, although no longer playing at parades, the marching band has played at a few events in the community, like last year’s 50th reunion for the graduating class of 1974 and a march they did to Julius West Middle School a couple of years ago. In addition, the marching band performs at the winter band and orchestra concert in December.
Although the full marching band mostly stops performing after football season, the drum line goes on to play at several basketball games and all of the Poms competitions.
The band wears their hats backward if they win a home game. “Everyone is just amazing and we have a lot of fun together,” Turk said.
Sophomores Lia Njakou-Tchanga and Maria Sitton have both been in the Color Guard for two years. The color guard performs flag routines alongside the marching band at home varsity football games and pep rallies. For every football game, the color guard adds moves to their flag routines to fit the frequently changing routines and formations of the marching band.
The color guard sometimes struggles with coordination, especially since they only get to practice once or twice a week. “To get an entire group of people doing the same thing, on the same count, on the same foot . . . it’s hard, especially [since] we’re such a big color guard now,” Njakou-Tchanga said.
Different from the instrument players on the marching band, who practice at home and also go to practices, the color guard mostly practices together, with a member practicing at home only if they miss a practice. However, having everyone together to practice is important for the color guard to be able to perform new routines well. “Ideally we want everyone to be here at the same time,” Sitton said.
The color guard is a relatively new addition to the marching band, with it being introduced by chorus teacher Sidney Clarke less than three years ago when she came to RM. “She’s helping us like exponentially grow each year, and do way harder stuff every year,” Njakou-Tchanga said.
Both members find color guard very fun. “We’re going to do this every year,” Njakou-Tchanga said.
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