While Park’s sports teams are playing their hardest to win the games, they are sometimes joined by the sounds of the Park pep band. The band not only entertains the crowd but also brings energy that fuels both the fans and the athletes. Through fun, upbeat music, the pep band helps create an exciting and motivating game-day atmosphere.
Pep band instructor Dan Anderson said music should be engaging, especially in pep band, which should feature enjoyable and relevant pop songs. He said he views the pep band as a valuable opportunity to practice skills such as air support and unusual rhythms.
“Music should be fun, that’s the biggest and most important thing. Pep band is for the band students, so the music should be something that’s enjoyable, fun, pop music, relevant, things like that,” Anderson said. “However, pep band is a great way to work on air support, to work on funky rhythms you might never see in a concert band situation.”
According to junior Toño Coronado, pep band members often learn songs by playing them repeatedly at events since there isn’t enough class time to cover everything.
“One thing people don’t realize about pep band is that we learn most of the songs while we are playing them over time because we don’t have a ton of class time to learn the music perfectly,” Coronado said. “I just learned the rest of the songs through playing them at events.”
Sophomore Espen Mollet said homecoming is the most dynamic because there are lots of people attending, creating a more exciting atmosphere. He said other games could be just as lively if more people showed up, though no other specific game stands out in terms of energy.
“Homecoming has the most energy because everyone’s there. I think if everyone came to all the games, there would be a lot more energy and it would be a lot more awesome,” Mollet said.
According to Anderson, the band’s energy boosts the crowd’s excitement, which helps inspire the players to perform well. He said the music also enhances the overall atmosphere and keeps people involved in the game.
“The pep band really helps set the tone for the game, the energy they bring fires up the crowd, which motivates (the players) to do their best. The music livens the atmosphere and keeps everyone engaged,” Anderson said.
According to Coronado, volleyball and basketball games tend to have a more energetic vibe than football because their quicker games create more excitement.
“Playing at sports like volleyball and basketball usually have more energy than at football because the game is more fast-paced. It is easier to get people engaged at (volleyball and basketball games),” Coronado said.
Along with the addition of the new director for the band, new effects and tunes get added as well. One of these new plans within pep band is what is known as “pep band shorts.” Espen Mollet said that the “shorts” are small and easy tunes that will be played during quick breaks during the game.
“(Pep band shorts) are little things that we were going to end up playing in between, like during timeouts for football games they’re just like things like that that are just shorter, like fun little quick things to play,” Mollet said.
