A feeling of accomplishment radiates through every band member as Dr. Thornton, standing in the faint glow of the Spartan Stadium scoreboards, announces that preseason has officially come to a close. We all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that we have survived the non-stop days filled with music and marching, but for many this moment becomes bittersweet as it marks the very last preseason of their Spartan Marching Band career.
Four years ago, just days before preseason was slated to begin, the class of 2020 was met with the news that their freshman year in the band would not be spent on the field, but behind a screen. Trombone squad leader Leah Niven describes the moment as “anticipation turning into devastation as my dream of being in the band was snatched away.”
The freshmen of 2020 made connections online that year, but without any in-person interactions the traditions of preseason never came to be. Band jackets were never distributed, State Fanfare was never memorized, flags were never taped, the rock was never painted, tubas were never named, and the stands of Spartan Stadium sat empty for a year, waiting to hear the first note of pregame ring out.
As April of 2021 approached, excitement began to stir again with the promise of a real preseason on the horizon. Online audition tapes rolled in and, after a year off, leadership began to prepare themselves for the largest new member class that had and will ever enter the SMB.
With a sense of intense enthusiasm and anticipation, the “red-shirted” class of 2020 experienced a preseason filled with record-breaking heat, swarms of mosquitoes, and mask mandates. The days blurred together, almost feeling endless, but when the first game day rolled around, they were ready.
Spartan Stadium roared back to life that September and Leah recalls the feeling of stepping onto the field for the first time as if it were yesterday, “My hands shook violently as Spartan Fanfare rang around me, and my knees wobbled as we spun the S. Distantly, I could hear my squad leader calling out the moves, and we charged forward through the show. As the “Shadows” began, I was overwhelmed with emotion, I had finally achieved my dream of being in the band. There I was, my heart pounding, proud and tall in my crisp white uniform, with a silver horn in my hands, surrounded by three hundred others, as thousands more sang around us. It was everything I could have dreamed of and more.”
Three years later, a majority of the class of 2020 is returning with unfinished business. Fifth year students in the university are not uncommon, but prior to the pandemic, returning to the SMB for a fifth year was. However, the uncommon has now become common once again with the class of 2020 as many of them return to get their full four years on the field. Lacy Jewell, drum major and former Big Ten flag remarked, “I couldn’t imagine choosing to not be in SMB for my last year… I think about times that I enter our band office but I stop by the Big Ten Flag room first because that will always be home. Moments like getting to join the twirlers during the fight song during a rehearsal and absolutely botching their twirling routine. Or the moment I got to perform my first pregame as drum major and immediately got to hug my mom and cry some happy tears after exiting the field. I’m so grateful for all that I’ve learned and get to experience in this ensemble.”
For the fifth years of the 155th band, their last preseason has been filled with gratitude. 2024 was very different from their first experience with this year boasting seventy-degree weather and series without masks (an experience one color guard member described as having a “mouthful of sweat”), but when asked about what made them want to stick with the SMB, the fifth years made it clear the weather was not a factor: “My childhood dream was to be a member of the SMB like my parents before me. When I finally achieved that, it was everything I thought it would be and more. I stayed in the band simply because I have so much fun every single day. Even on the 100° days when I’m sweating or on the 20° game days when I’m shivering, it has been nothing but fun” (Leah Niven).
With love to all our fifth years and spartan fans,