Pep band earns second place at competition

The GCSU pep band was the first runner-up at last weekend’s Peach Belt Conference Spirit Day Competition. The competition, held March 6, coincided with the conference basketball tournaments, with all events being held at USC Aiken in Aiken, S.C.

The competition, which features pep bands, dance teams and cheerleaders from the conference’s member universities, has been held ever since the Peach Belt Conference was chartered in 1990. The band usually coordinates with dance lines or cheerleaders in performances, which feature music typically associated with marching band.

“The conference wanted to do other activities besides sports, including an art exhibit from each of the school,” said Todd Shiver, director of the GCSU pep band and interim chair of the music department. “It’s pretty much unique to the Peach Belt, and it really aims to recognize these other groups for their excellence. It’s not something you would typically see at basketball tournaments.”

The pep band took second place in the competition behind champion UNC Pembroke. Three other schools, Lander University, Augusta State and host USC Aiken, also competed.

“I think the overall scoring was pretty close,” Shiver said. “I think (UNC Pembroke) had a little more coordination with their dance line.”

Shiver, who has been the director of the pep band since its inception, said there has only been four times that GCSU did not win the competition.

“We’ve won it either 14 out of 18 or 15 out of 19 times. We were one of the first ones once things got started up, and as the conference has gotten bigger more schools have gotten pep bands,” Shiver said. “We’re generally the ones to beat and we like it that way.”

“Our kids did great. We’ve had such a good pep band all these years and I feel like out of all the years we’ve been doing it, this year had the best competition,” Shiver added. “All the schools did a really good job.”

This year’s pep band for GCSU consists of 25 players, including five trumpets, four baritones, three horns, two tenor and alto saxophones each, four piccolos, three clarinets, a drum set player and a bass guitar.

“It’s the largest group we’ve had here. We usually cap it around 20,” Shiver said. “But we had so many people audition for the band, and we had so many good auditions and players that we decided to bump it up to 25 this year.”

In addition to the 25 players, the band also had a student conductor. Tyler Allen, a junior music education major, served as this year’s student conductor.

“This is my third year in the band and first conducting,” Allen said. “It was a lot of fun doing it. There was a lot of different music, and it will be something to keep in mind later for marching band when I become a band director.”

The pep band is something Shiver wants to continue doing.

“It’s been a great success here,” Shiver said. “It’s a really fun atmosphere, especially at the basketball games where you have the pep band involved.”

Posted by Scotty Thompson on Mar 12 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry