The Marching Virginians Better be in Atlanta
by furrer4heisman on May 28, 2009 8:00 AM EDT
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Virginia Tech's marching band doesn't make a lot of road trips. Usually if the Hokies are playing any farther away than the Triangle it means no band. I don't remember them at Clemson in 2007 and I know they didn't make trips to Nebraska, Florida State or BC last year, Georgia Tech or LSU in 2007 or BC or Miami in 2006.
A lot of this is because of cost. While the band could easily bus to Clemson or Atlanta, it would take a charter to get them just about anywhere else. But other schools are able to do this by having a smaller version of the band for road trips. AD Jim Weaver has said in past Labatt Hokie Hotlines that the band needs a pep version for away games.
It seems to me that's pretty easy to accomplish. Just have a certain number or band members that goes to away games. That's what Oklahoma did when I was in school. Only the upper classmen got to go on road trips, with the exception of OU-Texas and the bowl game. And they bussed pretty much everywhere but Eugene while I was there, too. Hell, they bussed to the Holiday Bowl.
I'm somewhat concerned the band won't be at the Alabama game because they weren't in Atlanta two years ago for the Georgia Tech game. I wonder if cost-cutting measures will keep the MVs at home during Labor Day weekend. That would be a shame. There is some hope, though because they were in Charlotte for the ECU game last year.
Both Alabama's Million Dollar Band and Clemson's Tiger Band were in Atlanta last year for this same soiree. It would be embarrassing if the Bama band was there and ours was absent this year.
Linkage
Hokies
- Like myself, BCO dominated at cornhole over the weekend. (Beer Control Offense)
- It took a cheaper donation to get season tickets this year. (Roth Report)
ACC and Opponents
- Jeff takes a break from watching Real Housewives of New Jersey to discuss possible BC games at Fenway with Brian. (BC Interruption)
- He's probably the ACC's best Heisman hopeful in a while. (The Legacyx4)
- Why Nebraska should move to the Big Ten. (Corn Nation)
- Back to the drawing board for Wake. (Blogger So Dear)
Stuff Only I Care About
- Chelsea Dagger has been silenced, but not before Patrick Kane scored one last beauty and Hip, Hip, Huet make the save of the year. (From the Rink)
- Okies will do anything to get Blake Griffin on the Thunder. (The Lost Ogle)
- I swear this has never happened to me before. (The Lost Ogle)
- Coaches ballots go secret. (Bootlegger Sports)
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He’s the best hopeful since Joe Ham!
by Winfield Featherston on May 28, 2009 11:38 AM EDT reply actions
Travel
The MV’s are definitely traveling en masse to the Alabama game, as per their website
http://spiritoftech.music.vt.edu/schedule.html
I’m not sure whether it came out of the athletics budget or not but I can tell you there is A LOT of friction within the MV Alumni organization to forming a pep band. After the Diamond Walnut bowl several years ago where the band was permitted to only bring 100 kids to the game it was decided that the whole band travels or none at all, and since our budget was usually fixed at the beginning of the year we basically planned on going to as many games as we could on the fixed budget/games where the stadium was willing to provide us with enough tickets.
This is why the band traveled slightly better since joining the ACC than the big east days (my freshman year, 2003, we only traveled to Pitt….imagine our excitement). I don’t know that the band members necessarily oppose pep bands if it meant we could travel more but i know that given the alumni organizations stance, it’s not likely to change. The Alumni association has sometimes organized to pay for us to travel outright on occasion to games, outside of our athletics budget. I doubt very highly the pep band concept will catch on for a while at Tech just due to the nature of the band’s influencing organizations.
Honestly, I think the more games we can get the MV’s to, the better just because we’ve gotten a lot of positive responses from fans at games where we’ve been there.
In any case, as a former tuba player in the MV’s I pretty much freaked to see a post leading off with the Hokie Pokie so thanks for making my day lol.
i had always wondered why we didnt have a travel roster for the band. so its either everyone goes or no one goes? that seems like of lame to me. seems like it would work if they just said non-freshmen only. thats what ou did. it helped stop a lot of the turnover because a lot of freshmen wouldnt come back after the first year in the pride of oklahoma.
A bullhorn, a bottle of whiskey and a dream. GobblerCountry.com
by furrer4heisman on May 29, 2009 1:31 AM EDT up reply actions
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