Tuba players from the Spartan Marching Band practice Wednesday at Demonstration Field.
“Two-a-days” is a term that many athletes and avid MTV reality show viewers can easily define: a preseason football practice followed by another later that day.
As if that weren’t tough enough, there is a 302-person group on MSU’s campus that actually participates in three-a-days: One morning, one afternoon and one evening practice for 10 days before school begins.
Although multiple intense practices a day are usually only associated with football, at MSU, that’s not the case.
For those 10 days, it’s the Spartan Marching Band that is outside getting in shape for the football season.
Before there’s music, there’s training
During the three-a-days, members find themselves running once every day, marching and high-step marching, lifting weights and core training individually and learning how to march in sync for pregame and halftime routines.
“It’s a lot of working out and it’s really physical,” said Cathy Rakowski, an elementary education senior and trumpet section leader. “Especially the pregame routine – it is seriously intense.”
Before noon games, members wake up at about 6 a.m. to shower and eat breakfast. They arrive at Ralph Young Field by 7 a.m. to start their hour-and-a-half rehearsal by 7:30 a.m.
Throughout the fall semester, band members dedicate hours to the group during the mandatory, one-credit marching band class from 4:30-6 p.m., Monday through Friday and 7-8:30 p.m. Monday nights. Saturdays are dedicated to home games, as well as two away games against Notre Dame and Ohio State.
Wouldn’t change a thing
Although band students may feel swamped at times, after sitting back and analyzing their decision to participate, many said they can’t picture themselves without a band uniform.
“You can’t be a football player without enjoying what you do,” said Ian McNabb, a drum major and packaging senior. “Same goes for band; I get satisfaction out of doing this. That’s the major reason I do it.”
McNabb also commented about the band’s uniforms, saying that it is an honor to be able to wear the jacket, pants and hat.
“It’s a large part of who we are, and there are strict guidelines on how to wear it,” he said. “For example, our hair must not touch our collars. Uniforms need to be dry-cleaned and pressed before every game. The hem of our pants and sleeves can’t exceed a certain length … and we have to conduct ourselves properly, without swearing or eating in uniform.”
The downside, McNabb said, is that everyone must pay for their own dry-cleaning. But what makes it all worth it in the end, he added, is running through the tunnel and causing more than 70,000 fans to erupt.
Making time for it all
Megan Thoma, a kinesiology junior who plays alto saxophone, said quality time management is crucial throughout the year. She does her homework during their blocks of free time because so many hours are dedicated to band.
“I think the hardest thing is the time constraint, always trying to work my schedule around it,” Rakowski said. “I’ve had a couple of conflicts, but Mr. (John) Madden has always been flexible.”
Sometimes the band feels rushed, McNabb said. They feel like they don’t always get a chance to relax, hang out, drink and party with the rest of campus before games. However, most of the time, they think positively, he said.
“Being in the band is more exciting because we are actually a part of game day,” he said. “It’s a cool opportunity to be in the central part of it all, with Sparty and the football team. We all feel really included in the program.”
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Madden-tastic
One of the things many band members agree on is their appreciation for John Madden and his 19 years of experience as the Spartan Marching Band director in its 137-year history.
“He is beyond an authority figure for me – he is more of a father figure,” McNabb said. “He is very well-respected by the students, and it would be really hard to imagine a Spartan band without him.”
Madden, after playing in MSU’s band for four years and graduating, bounced around as a band director at Rutgers University and in Wichita, Kan. before returning to MSU to take the position.
“Band is one of the things beloved by all, at the heart of all sports,” he said. “It’s an important part of the game-time experience. It’s one thing to be a director of a great band but it’s another to be a band director in front of an audience and student section that embraces it. It’s very exciting to do it at MSU.”
Rakowski said Madden is the reason she continues to come back year after year. But, whether or not it is because of him, she said she has become a more outgoing person.
“This program has definitely made me confident in who I am,” she said. “I came into MSU as a shy person, and now I am going out in a leadership position. This will help me in my career, to lead a classroom. It really applies to real life more than people think.”
Striving to be the best
McNabb said that although it might not seem obvious, they are always comparing themselves to other schools’ bands. They like to think they compare favorably to bands in the Big Ten conference, hanging around the top of the list with Ohio State.
After the big football win Saturday, McNabb said the band’s two season goals are stronger than ever: to be the football team’s number one supporter and to help everyone feel the game-day atmosphere – making fans become better fans.
They even have an inside joke about how they are a fourth-quarter band, just like a squad would say they are a fourth-quarter team. It means they are tuned mentally and physically the whole game.
“We do what we do, at all times: We play the cheers,” he said. “We get down when MSU is losing, just like the fans, but we remain positive. We put on a positive game face at all times.”
