No Pep Band at Conference BBall Tournament

Wed Feb 10, 2016 4:09 pm

Wasn't sure if I should put this under basketball or not, but figured since it applies to both Men's and Women's Basketball, I'd just put it here.

The pep band members were informed that they will not be going to the conference basketball tournament this year in Sioux Falls. Not entirely surprising since it is very likely that the men's team will not be attending and the women may only end up being in one game and then heading back home, and since the athletics department doesn't exactly have a lot of extra money to be sending another ~30 people up to South Dakota, hotel rooms, transportation, food, etc. Still pretty disappointing to the pep band members.

This is one of the instances where it might have been nice to have it in the Quad Cities (like it used to be back when I was in the pep band). We didn't get to stay overnight and do fun things...they'd just bus us up and back the same day...but at least the band would likely have been able to go for however many games we're involved in.

wiu712 · Wed Feb 10, 2016 6:54 pm

This is very disappointing news.

Will we be the only team there without a Pep Band ???? If so, what kind of message is that sending ????

Wed Feb 10, 2016 9:23 pm

wiu712 wrote:This is very disappointing news.

Will we be the only team there without a Pep Band ???? If so, what kind of message is that sending ????

I don't know. I've heard of other schools sometimes not sending their bands to conference tournaments...I remember reading a story how UAB's band bought shirts of all the schools in the conference (CUSA, I think) who couldn't attend their conference tournament and then changed shirts and played for those teams too.

It does kinda suck not showing up with a band, but I think at this point, it's more important (and looks better to most of the other people on campus), if we don't send them, so as to save money. If we're letting people go, not hiring for open positions, and consolidating programs, it would probably look bad to most of the faculty and staff if we were chartering an extra bus, getting maybe 8-10 hotel rooms for a night or two, spending money on food, etc. just to have the band there to play at what might end up being 1 game (hopefully it would have been more, but you don't know).

wiu712 · Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:37 am

ST_Lawson wrote:I've heard of other schools sometimes not sending their bands to conference tournaments.

When Chicago State was in the conference, they would hire a local high school band to play for them at the conference tournament. That's not quite the same as having your own band playing, but it is better than nothing.

It appears that Western will have the "nothing" playing at the conference tournament.

The team and pep band should be considered as a paired-item.

meganeck · Thu Feb 11, 2016 5:18 pm

I think it is probably a wise move, will save a little money and would probably be for only one game.

OldHare · Thu Feb 11, 2016 9:42 pm

wiu712 wrote:
ST_Lawson wrote:I've heard of other schools sometimes not sending their bands to conference tournaments.
When Chicago State was in the conference, they would hire a local high school band to play for them at the conference tournament. That's not quite the same as having your own band playing, but it is better than nothing.

It appears that Western will have the "nothing" playing at the conference tournament.

The team and pep band should be considered as a paired-item.

Oral Roberts hires local musicians for each game they are involved. One of the musicians is from my old high school and he has the gig again this year.