Hey Baby, Will You Respect the Marching Band?

Hard work, long hours, and no respect?  The marching band deserves recognition for what we do as much as any other sport. Long hours of hard work go into each performance.

As members of the marching band its hard putting in all the time and effort and getting no respect out of what we do. People have gotten better with supporting us, especially the student section. They have started staying during half and cheering us on.

“There are definitely people who respect the marching band, but there are some who still think it’s pointless.” said junior Knochette captain Grace Venatta.

We work for hours and hours and no one seems to realize that. Some people seem to think those routines just magically appear on the field. News flash – they don’t. We spend the majority of our summers going to practices including sixty five hours of band camp.

“The hard work and hours we put into it makes our show great. A lot of the student section takes the ditties for granted but the band practices hours at school and hours at home to make them sound good and make it enjoyable” said junior saxophone player Andrew Brandt.

Many of the band members believe that they are not respected enough from the football players.

“When they lose, they usually don’t thank us even though we were cheering them on no matter what the score,” said Venatta. “But, when they win, it’s nice to see them come over and thank us.”

The band attends every football game, performs, and cheers for the team the whole time, no matter what.

“We put a lot of effort and time into practice to cheer them on and we go to their games no matter how far away and most of them couldn’t take a few minutes to thank us,” said junior flute player Hailey Venesky. “It’s infuriating.”

We are there supporting and respecting the football team, and the whole school. It would be nice if we would get that same respect back.

“Some football teams, during half time, will sit in the end zone and watch their schools band perform and give up some of their “half time pep talk” to cheer them on and show their respect,” said Venesky, “I would feel more respected if our team could do that for us like we do to respect other bands.”

There are still some who respect us as a band though. It’s an amazing feeling when the crowd and cheerleaders cheer us on after a “bangin show”, as band director Mr. Hayden would say. We work so hard to put on that show and provide entertainment and music during the games.

Overall though, the marching band is like a family. We would all agree it’s worth it in the end.

“I consider most of the marching band members my friends and even family,” said Brandt. “These are some of the best people you’ll ever meet.”

Against the stereotype, marching band is pretty great.

“We are a small band compared to bands in the area, but we put off a lot more sound than most of them do. And like Mr. Hayden says, ‘We have the best auxiliaries in Butler County!’” said Venesky.

With all these things in mind, it comes down to the performance and the reactions we get that make it all worth it. After we preformed out hearts out and we are ready to march off, that moment when you can finally take a deep breath because you know it went off without a hitch.

“My favorite thing about marching band would have to be how great it feels at the end of each performance when my flute comes down and everyone is clapping and cheering for us, and the surge of pride and giddiness that comes over you,” said Venesky.