Basketball season has arrived and so has the pep band ready to spice most games up.

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     Pep band is an ensemble that provides entertainment as well as boost the confidence during athletic events or rallies. The pep band plays until the basketball season is over to play for every home game. 

 

     Band teacher Tyler Rick has directed the school’s pep band for six years and said the students who are in the pep band are enjoying the experience.

 

     “We just play some fun pop tunes to help cheer up the basketball team and cheer them to victory,” Rick said. “I recommend it to anybody that’s in band. It’s just a good time to get to lay back and just play along to some pop tunes you don’t normally play in normal band class.” 

 

     Newer students who are new to the pep band aren’t used to the scattered troupe.

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     “Pep band seems a little messy,” junior Grey Helsel said. “It’s just like play, sit wherever, do this, do that, there’s no real structure like the current band director has.”  

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     Other students believe pep band can be fun for the chaos. 

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     “Pep band is fun because we don’t have our current band director being bossy,” sophomore May Hernandez said. “Mr. Rick just has us play.”

 

     As for older students, it’s just the difficulty of keeping track of the activity because of jobs or stressing over the towering responsibilities before leaving the school. Pep band is a safe space for those that want to put their skills to the ultimate test. That ultimate test is not to feel the pressure from band directors who want students to improve for them, but to improve with something they can engage with a little more freely. No boundaries whatsoever. Just playing whatever feels right with an entire band who feels the same exact way.