Behind the Music

by Stephanie Crozier | photography by Julia Norman

It’s a warm, sunny saturday afternoon in October 2004, and you’re sitting amidst a sea of red in Sanford stadium, watching as the dawgs dominate the Louisiana State University Tigers. Fred Gibson scores a touchdown after a pass from David Greene, and as you cheer, the University of Georgia Redcoat Band plays the fight song in celebration. You dance and sing the words, used to hearing the peppy sound coming from the northeast corner of the stadium, used to cheering along throughout the game just as you do almost every Saturday in the fall. But how much do you really know about the band? What is their day like?

Gamedays begin early for the Redcoats. While most students are still asleep in their beds and only the most enthusiastic tailgaters are setting up their tents and grills, we’re walking across campus in our uniforms, heading for our morning practice at Woodruff Field behind Stegeman Coliseum. Often the sun is just rising, and the campus is still quiet, not yet filled with the sounds of blaring radios, the aromas of grilled food and the throngs of enthusiastic fans in red and black that will soon cover every available surface.

The morning of the 2004 LSU game, we’re served breakfast at 8:15 and begin practice at 8:45. We’re tired, understandably, and you’ll see yawns abounding as you glance around our group. Many of us were in Sanford Stadium at 6:15 a.m. on Friday to play for the ESPN2 show Cold Pizza, and all of us were up later than we should have been the night before—it was a Friday night, after all. We’re excited though, and everyone is buzzing with gameday electricity. While we eat, we hear random calls of “It’s GAMEDAY!” over the music, and everyone is chatting about the match-up against LSU that will begin at 3:30 p.m. During the warm-up time that follows, sectional groups of people who play the same instrument stand in circles around the field, massaging each other’s shoulders, doing silly exercises to wake up and participating in group cheers to get everyone psyched for the game.

People grumble about having to wake up at the crack of dawn—or before—especially when the game won’t start for hours, but secretly, we all like the atmosphere of these early morning meetings. “Morning practices are fun because that’s when you start to get excited about the game,” says Stewart Tarvin, a former mellophone player from Kennesaw. “You’re awake way earlier than you should be, but you know that the day still has a lot in store.”

After an hour or two of rehearsing our pregame and halftime shows in the hot and humid air, we hear the blessed words “Bring it in!” from Brett Bawcum, the fall 2004 assistant director of bands. Soon we grab free boxed lunches and disperse for a three-hour break. Some Redcoats head back to their dorms to take naps or to the dining halls to eat; others join family and friends who are tailgating. Still others enjoy just walking around campus, soaking up the atmosphere and searching for free food. One of the first things veterans tell new members each year is that friendly tailgaters love giving handouts to Redcoats in uniform.

The drumline reports to the Tate Student Center before the rest of the band for the drum show, a treat for the crowd and percussionists alike. Porter Searcy, a fourth-year percussion section leader from Marietta likes this part of the day because the people “are right there watching us from close up and enjoying it. It gets the adrenaline going and is a lot of fun.”

John Moates, a fourth-year percussion section leader from Blue Ridge adds, “We get to show everyone what we’ve been working so hard for.” It’s no secret that the drumline is one of the most dedicated and talented sections in the band, and the weekly event draws a large crowd of excited fans.

As the percussionists play, the rest of us begin to arrive and line up for one of the most exciting parts of the day for the fans: the Dawg Walk. Thousands of fans line up for the celebrated tradition, but the Redcoats have a unique perspective: we’re inside the regular football fans, creating the tunnel through which the cheerleaders and football players pass on their way to the stadium. “There’s nothing quite like being right in the middle of the Dawg Walk,” says Patrick Gauld, a third-year mellophone player from Watkinsville.

The Dawg Walk concludes with a powerful rendition of the “Battle Hymn of the Bulldog Nation” and one last cheer as we move back into our lines. We turn to face Sanford, getting ready for what many of us consider our favorite part of the day: performing our chant as we enter the stadium. There’s still nothing like marching past crowds of people while proudly shouting, “Ain’t nothing finer in the land than the Georgia Redcoat Marching Band!”

“I always dread waking up before the sun on Saturday morning,” says Jordan Shaw, a third-year sousaphone player from Clermont. “But when I hear the tap-off of the chant going into Sanford, the adrenaline starts pumping and I say to myself, ‘This is why I’m a Redcoat.’”

Phil Rubin, a fourth-year sousaphone section leader and band captain from Marietta also loves the feeling of marching into the stadium. “I love the chant ­ I think it’s one of the most unique and exciting things we do,” he says. “Marching in that way really brings a lot of energy into the stadium, and I love seeing the fans cheer as you come through the tunnel.”

The next highlight of the day is pregame, and because of the importance and attention placed on the game against LSU, the energy in the stadium is particularly high as we wait to take the field. “At the LSU game [last year], I was standing on the sideline getting ready to march on for pregame, and I noticed that Sanford Stadium was the loudest it’s ever been,” says Ty Carnes, a third-year drum major from Acworth. “After being in the band for three years, I had kind of gotten used to the usual noise in Sanford, but being down there at that moment, it was taken to a new level and got me excited. I could barely talk to the person next to me.”

When the drumline plays the opening beats of the show and begins marching straight out onto the field, the energy on the sidelines reaches its peak. Trombone players thrust their horns into the air, and musicians on both sides of the field begin hopping up and down in anticipation. Then the percussionists give their cue, and everyone races onto the field, running to form the arch in what many consider their favorite part of pregame. Others especially like interacting with the crowd, helping to build excitement in the stadium. “Having 92,000 Georgia fans screaming and cheering while you play is such a cool feeling,” says Ashley Bow, a first-year clarinetist from Lawrenceville. “Only Redcoats know what it’s like.”

All week long, people had been putting out a call for some noise at the LSU game, an important home game in the 2004 season. As a result, the cheers in Sanford Stadium are deafening and everyone seems even more spirited than usual. Sitting in the band section, we share our excitement and try to play more songs than usual during the game to get the crowd going. “It’s like a cycle,” says Steven Parker, a second-year alto saxophone player from Dublin. “We feed on their energy, then if they like what we do, they get more energetic. It’s awesome and it really fuels the band’s desire to go out there and rock.”

Our job isn’t over when the clock runs out. A part of our home game tradition, we sit in the stands and play a post-game show for any fans that want to stick around. Of course, a win warrants a run of our victorious version of the fight song—an arrangement of “Glory” and Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”—followed by several of our longer, more upbeat songs. No matter how tired we become as the game nears the end, all of us find a sudden burst of energy as we celebrate our victory. We play many songs that feature impressive solos and allow people to dance, but we also always include two slower, more respectful numbers: “Tara” and “Battle Hymn.” The latter can be incredibly emotional, especially after a big win. It has even been known to bring people to tears.

We finish off the day with a high-energy run-through of the chant and cadence, the same that we use to enter the stadium, and then we’re dismissed. It’s almost 7:30 p.m. by the time we begin walking to our cars and dorms, and we’re exhausted. The initial high from winning an exciting game begins to wear off, leaving us tired with sore feet. However, the time and energy expended were well worth it, and we can’t wait to do it again next Saturday.

Editor’s Note: Stephanie Crozier is a third-year student from Lawrenceville. She plays the clarinet in the Redcoat Band.