During the school’s football home opener on Friday Sept. 5 against MICDS, the school will debut a pep band for the first time. The band will play during the game and this will continue throughout the entire season.

Pep Band Director Blake Korte will lead the band tonight during their debut. The band will be made up of members of the Honors Jazz Band as well as students in the concert band. The band is not required for students and is purely volunteer based.

“I’m hoping that over the season and over the years that it will continue to get bigger,” Korte said. “I’m hoping that we’ll get more buy-in from the band guys who want to be there. After getting a couple under their belt, they’ll see this is really fun, number one, and it’s also a really cool way to be a man for others and support the guys on the field.”

The band will be playing popular rock songs that the community will be familiar with. Songs such as “Ironman” and “We Will Rock You” will be played by the band. The band has also created and practiced a jingle for John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.

“I don’t know if excitement gets at it enough. When Mr. Korte reached out saying ‘I really want to do this, and I’ve already put John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt to music,’ I was like oh, that’s gonna be awesome,” Said leader of Sports and Spirit Alex Hall. “The energy that comes from a well organized pep band is just like, I’m starting to get like goosebumps thinking about some of those moments.”

The band, just as Sports and Spirit does, will add energy for the school surrounding game days and will help Spartans bring a higher level of support for their classmates on the field. 

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we’re hoping that over time the number [of pep band members] will grow,” Korte said, “I think the members will find out that the guys on the field and the guys in the stands and the community will really get behind this idea and they’ll start to be amped about it.”