Last week, both the Georgetown men’s and women’s basketball teams kicked off their seasons with back-to-back wins in McDonough Arena. For the band, the start of the season is always an exciting time, promising months ahead of spirited fanfare. As soon as we return from the Big East tournaments in the spring, we already start counting down the days until we return to McDonough Arena and Capital One Arena.
No matter the teams’ performances the previous year, the start of the season is hopeful, with a fresh start, renewed energy and refreshed personnel. The band has new songs to play and old basketball traditions to revive. We don our rugbies, as band members have done for nearly 40 years, and make our way to the arenas to be part of a game atmosphere that hopefully produces March Madness-caliber teams. In some ways, the start of the basketball season feels similar to the first day of school. The sky’s the limit for what the team can achieve and what the band can engage in.
Georgetown basketball and the Pep Band have been closely tied together for much of their history. We attend every game in the regular season, and travel with them to the Big East tournaments each March. When the basketball teams have traveled to the March Madness tournaments in the past, the band has joined them. Every year dating back to the early 1980s, when the band took its current form as a pep band, we’ve spent hundreds of hours every year watching basketball and performing for the crowd.
All of this time spent together has created bonds among band members and traditions that have stood the test of time. One of my favorite band traditions is our rendition of “Hey Baby.” We play this song from the 1987 hit film “Dirty Dancing” during the end of the second half of every men’s basketball game, and the end of the fourth quarter of women’s games. What makes this song special is that we play our instruments for half of it, and sing the rest. While we may not be as vocally talented as the other musical groups on campus, the song always lightens my mood no matter how the game is going. If you’re ever at a game and hear us perform “Hey Baby,” we encourage people to join us. One of my favorite parts about watching a sporting event is creating connections with other fans over the love you all share for the same team. We hope that by singing this song along with the rest of the Georgetown basketball fans at games we can find community in our love for the Hoyas.
Although we may have old band traditions that we continue every year, we’re also excited to introduce new songs into our repertoire this year. For the past few months we’ve been rehearsing “Fireball” by Pitbull, “Starships” by Nicki Minaj and “My House” by Flo Rida. We’re excited to start new band traditions in this new era of Georgetown basketball.
As a band, we’re very proud and honored to carry on traditions that were around when the Georgetown basketball teams were at the peak of their success. At the same time, we can’t wait to be a part of this new age of basketball with new band traditions.
