The Rose Bowl Experience

At this point I think everyone in the universe knows that Penn State went to the Rose Bowl this year.  But there's so much more to just the parade and game!  Especially when you're in the Blue Band.

After we won the B1G Championship in Indianapolis on December 3, we pretty much knew we were Rose Bowl bound.  Nevertheless, we all huddled around out televisions on December 4 at noon and anxiously awaited the announcement.  When it was announced, chaos ensued.  Screams, crying, tears, probably lots of champagne.  The first thing the Blue Band did was learn the minstrel turn.  Because the Rose Parade can't have anything less than remarkably extra, when we made a right turn we couldn't simply do a normal right turn, no.  We had to do probably one of the most intricate right turns in the history of movement, which you can view below.

After we learned (sort of) the minstrel turn, we had to relearn the Carnegie Hall show (for the fourth time!).  We came back to State College on December 30 for a short practice with really good food.  As Mr. Drane always says, "If you're with me, you're eating good".

On December 31, we departed for the Harrisburg Airport at 5 am.  From there we flew to Pasadena on two chartered flights with probably enough snack foods to feed all of University Park for a
month.

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

When we got off, we immediately went to In-N-Out Burger (my first experience, 10/10 would highly recommend).  Then, it started to rain.  Imagine that!  California's in a drought for ~4 years, and the minute we get there it starts to pour.  So, in the pouring rain, we performed our show for around twenty unenthusiastic USC fans.

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

After that, we spent NYE in LA!  It honestly felt like a dream, mostly because I got a personal pizza for $8 which is essentially unheard of in LA.

L to R: Amy Winder, Elise Grovanz, Allison Ruman, Rachel Neff

A few of the Blue Band rookies rang in the New Year by walking around downtown LA by trying to find somewhere to eat for breakfast.  We ended up about a block away from Skid Row before we turned back to central downtown.  Most of my friends went to a little French breakfast cafe called Le Pain Quotidien and got beautiful dishes (and paid through the nose for them).  My friend Celeste and I went to IHOP.

Photo credit to Elise Grovanz

Later that day, we played at the Penn State pep rally.  I met up with my father and aunt and uncle at the pep rally and we saw all sorts of cool Penn State alums, like Ki-Jana Carter!

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

Then, the big day.  I couldn't believe I was actually about to march in the Rose Parade.  That's something I had only dreamed about since I was old enough to dream.  We all assembled in the hotel lobby at 4 am and headed to the parade site.

I don't think I can genuinely express how terrible the parade was.  5.5 miles is a lot to march, and we were all half dead about three blocks in.  Between being out of breath, our arms aching from holding our instruments up, and USC fans screaming profanity at us, we were ready for it to be over.  After about 4 miles, people from the Red Cross gave us all cups of water before we finished the parade.

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

As terrible as the parade was, the pictures from my family and friends made it all worth it (and the In-N-Out we got after).

The game itself was incredible!  I mean, barring the fact that we lost, it was an amazing experience. Playing the National Anthem for the country was indescribable.  Not to mention we saw Nick Jonas!  A little bird told me that he put the Blue Band on his Snapchat story, just further proving how big of a deal we are.

Photo credit to Katie Schreckengast

Overall, the experience was unforgettable.  I can't believe that my rookie year led me to playing at the Rose Bowl.  I'm so thankful for the opportunities I've been given, and I'm so happy I got to share them with all of you!

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

To view more of Annemarie Mountz's photography, click here

Outside of Practice

Belive it or not, despite around 25 hours per week of practice, the Blue Band does things outside of practice!  And not just recruitment events, either.  Sometimes we do some things for fun!

Some of these things we do during the season.  One example was my first post, the rookie cake bake.  Although it wasn't voluntary, it was still bonding, no matter how painful of an experience it was.

Other things we do throughout the season are voluntary.  One of these was the Mt. Nittany hike.  One Sunday afternoon a good chunk of the Blue Band (I'm talking 150+ people) decided it would be fun to hike up the side of a mountain all at the same time.  Grant it, this idea was much better on paper, but it was still a fun experience!  Plus, we got some amazing pictures out of it.

Another thing we do is Mr. Blue Band.  As the name suggests, Mr. Blue Band is a pageant-esque event in which the nominated men of the Blue Band answer questions and perform a talent.  Of course no scholarship money is awarded to the participants, but they do get the unmatched honor of being named Mr. Blue Band for an entire calendar year.

We also do some things outside of the season, too!  Although we are knee-deep in formal season for Greek life, the Blue Band has a formal too!  It's at different times every year since the vice president is the one who plans it, and this year it was the first Friday of the second semester.  It was pretty cold, but hundreds of members made the trek to Beaver Stadium, where our formal was.  Being in Beaver Stadium in anything but our uniforms was a nice change of pace.

You can think of Blue Band formal as like...awkward middle school dance but with fancy hors d'oeuvres and people are dressed nicely rather than Abercrombie and Fitch shirts and straightener-seared hair.  Of course we snapped some great pictures of ourselves

Some not so great pictures of ourselves

And of course, what's a formal without sucking in as much air as possible in the bathroom and pretending you're pregnant?

And here's a picture of me with my hot date

The best part of formal was definitely the toothpicks in the finger foods that had flags of different countries on them.

Another thing we have is an annual banquet!  My high school did this, but I didn't really think it was a thing outside of that.  But, I couldn't be more wrong!

The banquet was held at the Nittany Lion Inn, which, for those who don't know, is essentially an overrated (albeit very nice) hotel on the very west edge of campus.  It was nice to have an excuse to dress up one fine Sunday afternoon (which just happened to be Superbowl Sunday) and have a nice break from dining hall food for once.  Plus, Von Walker spoke!

Photo credit to Olivia Dowd

At the end of the day, it was great to see so many people that I hadn't seen since the season and celebrate how awesome we are before rushing off to various apartments to eat wings and scream at the Patriots and Falcons and wait for the new Star Wars movie commercial.

Blue Band is a great place to meet some of your best friends in college!  Not only do we suffer through intensely hot practices and frigid cold games, but we climb up mountains and eat cheeses with flags in them.

Outside of Beaver Stadium

One common misconception among Blue Band fans is that we don't do anything except march in Beaver Stadium on Saturdays, and occasionally at a Bowl Game.  This couldn't be farther from the truth!  Not only does the Blue Band do a lot of recruitment gigs, but we do other fun musical stuff, too!

I'll start off with recruitment gigs.  Our director, Mr. Gregory Drane just completed his second year as Blue Band director.  Before he was head director, he was assistant director for many years.  One of Mr. Drane's favorite phrases comes from the Penn State Alma Mater: "For the future that we wait".  Mr. Drane constantly looks toward the future of the Blue Band and how we can improve the organization.  He wants to make sure the Blue Band has the best musicians available.  To ensure this, he often asks for 20-30 musicians to play at various recruitment events, such as the Provost Dinner or accepted student days.  Our most recent recruitment gig featured Drane's five-year-old son, Deuce.

Photo courtesy of Rasa Drane

Another thing the Blue Band does is thank our sponsors!  This year there was a dinner in York, Pennsylvania to honor some of the big donors to Penn State York.  Some members of the Blue Band (mostly those from York, myself included) travelled to York as a surprise to thank our donors (and potentially pick up a few more).  What I didn't know is that one of my high school marching instructors, who is good friends with Mr. Drane and just happens to be the next Alumni Blue Band Association President, was there!

L to R: Allison Ruman and Brett Butler (ABBA President)

Although we do some gigs outside of game day, we also do some during game day!  The most coveted of these is called President's Tailgate.  A select group of members gets to leave practice early (a big plus) and go to the Nittany Lion Inn, where they play popular songs for President Barron, his wife, and other important guests at that day's game.  Allegedly, the food is fantastic, so getting on the P Tailgate roster is pretty competitive.  The second is called Team Walk.  This entails a different select group of members who travel to Beaver Stadium before the game and lead the team into the stadium for the first time that day while playing fight songs.  The crowd is usually anxious to see the team, so we are often met with good energy.  Fun fact: I did every team walk this year!  So if you were among the thousands to see the team in to the stadium on Saturdays, you probably heard me playing my trumpet, too.

Along with home games, the Alumni Blue Band Association donates enough money to the band to send a pep band to each away game that the whole band doesn't attend.  This gives us a huge leg up because we have representation at all of our football games of the season, which isn't something a lot of bands can say.

Sometimes the band gets together to do things that aren't actually musical at all!  Molly Barron, President Barron's wife, has a special relationship with the Blue Band.  Every game at the end of the third quarter, she comes to the band and conducts "Hey! Baby!"  And, once a year, she invites the entire Blue Band to her house for a picnic!  The food there was probably the best I've ever eaten.

Photo credit to Olivia Dowd

This is a great opportunity to get some really nice section pictures

Photo credit to Olivia Dowd

Some not so nice section pictures

Photo credit to Olivia Dowd

And an opportunity to talk to THE FIRST LADY HERSELF

Photo credit to Olivia Dowd

I don't remember what she said, I was too busy freaking out that Molly Barron was talking to me.  Also, thinking about how I almost spilled ketchup on the carpet of her office (which probably costs more than I do if we're being honest).

We also perform at THON!  Every year you can catch the Blue Band in the THON pep rally

Drum major Jimmy Frisbie and Blue Sapphire Rachel Reiss with Mike the Mailman at 2017 THON pep rally
Photo credt to Annemarie Mountz

All in all, the band does some pretty cool stuff other than just marching in Beaver Stadium every Saturday.  If you have a younger family member who is looking to come to Penn State, tell them to be on the lookout for the Blue Band when they come to visit!

For more Blue Band Pictures, visit the Blue Band Historian Flickr page
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Ohio State Upset

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several months, you know that the most exciting moment of 2016 was when Grant Haley returned a blocked field goal 60 yards for a touchdown with 4:27 left on the clock, leading Penn State to upset Ohio State, the then no. 2 team in the nation.  If you were at the game, you know exactly how intense the atmosphere was and the resulting riots downtown.  Being in the band was no exception.

However, the weekend of October 22 wasn't just exciting for the band because we were playing Ohio State, but College Marching was coming to get the full Blue Band experience.

College Marching Bands (usually just called College Marching) is an online presence started by several Penn State grads that report on all things that have to do with college marching bands.  Over the years they have amassed over 100,000 followers, which was a huge opportunity for the Blue Band to get more exposure.  They broadcast all of our rehearsals live on their Facebook page and tweeted pictures of rehearsal so that people all over the world could experience a weekend with the Blue Band from the comfort of their own living rooms.  But, they would expose everything, including our mistakes.  And we knew that, which is why our pregame performance was the best of the season!

The College Marching guys arrived in University Park on Friday afternoon and stayed with us through the win on Saturday.  Broadcasting every single rehearsal to an audience of more than 100,000 people was about as intense as it sounds.  Not only that, but this was the game we performed our halftime show memorized.  Usually we don't memorize halftime shows, but we decided to perform the halftime show we were supposed to play during the Minnesota game that got rained out, and since we were already very familiar with the music and drill, we figured we'd take it up a notch and memorize it!  The Carnegie Show was also arguably the most difficult show of the season, not only because we memorized the music and drill in less than two weeks, but also because it was the most difficult to play.  We performed the Overture of 1812, which everyone knows, so it was imperative that we absolutely nailed it (which, if you check our videos on Facebook, you'll note that we did), or else the thousands of people following College Marching and the millions of people watching the game on prime time TV would know we messed up.

One great part about the Ohio State game was that it was a night game, so we got to sleep in!  But, although the sun was shining, it was quite the blustery day.  We put our "triangle tees" (the t-shirts the Blue Band gets every season) over our sweatshirts and jackets which made us look a little more stocky than usual, but hey, more intimidating, right?

L to R: Allison Ruman, Rachel Cooper, Celeste Watson-Martin

If anything will make you throw up from nerves, it's performing a marching band show in front of literally millions of people.  Most of the time I was way too nervous to even play.  I was just trying to make sure I went the right places at the right time.

The actual game was pretty intense, too.  In all honesty, no one was really expecting the team to win, but as the game neared its end and the score was still pretty tight, we all got a little more anxious.

Then, the play of the century happened.

4:27.  I still remember that moment.  Grant it, I probably know the least about football in the country, but when a play like that happened, even I knew it was a pretty big deal.  The energy in the stadium was just indescribable.  Everyone was screaming.  And when we won...truly the best moment of my life.  I remember seeing everyone storming the field and I was beside myself (partly because I knew it would take the better part of an hour before everyone cleared the field which meant we didn't have to perform a post-game show).

Storming of the field at the 2016 PSU vs. OSU game

And of course, variations of this photo was everyone's profile picture for the next several weeks:

L to R: Elise Grovanz, Allison Ruman , Rachel Neff, Luke Nugent

It's safe to say that everyone had the time of their lives at this game, and College Marching was so excited they had the inside scoop on this weekend.  Next year the game is played in Columbus, and there are rumors that the Blue Band will travel to that game, and you better believe the outcome will be exactly the same, if not better.

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Travelling Trumpets

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the band does not get the third quarter off.  However, during third quarter each game, a number of trumpet players travel around Beaver Stadium and play fight songs.  This is a little ditty we like to call "Travelling Trumpets".  Unfortunately we don't travel to the student section, but if you attended a PSU game with your family before you were a student here, perhaps we paid a visit to you.

Travelling Trumpets is somewhat coveted.  It isn't director-run, meaning a member of the trumpet section is the one who coordinates everything (this year it was Rusty Bizaro, who happened to be my squad leader).  Every week before the game, travelling trumpets signups went live on the Blue Band Trumpets Facebook group, and everyone would scramble to sign up.  Everyone wants to play a PSU fight song for their parents.  Homecoming is a particularly popular game, because the alumni come back and all of the returnees want to travel to see their friends and former bandmates.  This was the game that I chose to travel because my entire family was coming.

Travelling Trumpets is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong.  However, there were a couple of factors that led me to have a less than wonderful experience with Travelling Trumpets.

First of all, I have a fear of stairs.  I hate them.  I don't like walking down them, much less running down them.  I'm somewhat prone to falling, and I didn't really want to do it in front of thousands of people.  Not only that, but Travelling Trumpets, especially on homecoming, requires running.  Although it may seem a little strange considering I spend five of my seven days high stepping for several hours, running is not my forte.  I'm not good at it and I don't like to do it.  All of the trumpets have to be back in the Blue Band section by the fourth quarter, so, especially on homecoming when people are located around the stadium, running is necessary.  I didn't know about the running schtick before I signed up.  Those things in mind coupled with the fact I had a broken foot didn't exactly make for a wonderful third quarter.

Me and my broken foot

For those of you who had class with me last semester, you probably remember my boot.  My right foot got a stress fracture from marching.  You read that right, marching.  The impact from high stepping was too much for my second metatarsal to handle, so it fractured.  But, according to the podiatrist, as long as I wore my boot at all other times, I was good to march!  So that's exactly what I did.

The actual process of Travelling Trumpets was totally unforgettable.  At Penn State, members of the Blue Band are kind of celebrities.  Everybody went crazy when we started to play the fight songs, and families even stopped us and asked if we could get pictures with their kids.  Some of the students getting chicken tender baskets even wanted pictures with us, and a few middle aged dads screamed that they loved the Blue Band as we ran by them.

About two-thirds of the way through the third quarter, however, my foot started throbbing and it hurt to walk, so my Travelling Trumpets experience was cut short and I was rushed to the medical suite under the stadium where they gave me 600 milligrams of advil (I was feeling pretty good after that).

Even though it ended in pain, the actual travelling was so exhilarating and fulfilling.  Seeing Penn State fans have so much pride in their school and band is exactly why I auditioned.  My high school didn't have a great arts program, and being at Penn State with so many people who love and appreciate the Blue Band has been such a refreshing change of scenery for me.  Knowing that I brought a little more excitement to the rainy day in October was more than satisfying.  Plus, I got some pretty sweet photos out of it.

Playing "Fight on State" during Travelling Trumpets

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Tuesday Practice Spirit Nights

For those who don't know, the Blue Band has a pretty intense schedule.  We practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:00-5:45, every Tuesday from 7:30-10:00, and then our call time for game day is typically five hours before kick-off, but it could be earlier if it's a night game.  Because we are constantly around each other and the same routine week after week gets boring, we spice Tuesday practices up a little bit with spirit days!

Each Tuesday of the season is a different theme.  There's no prize for the most spirited, but we do take pictures together at the end of the night.  Some of our spirit days this season included:

Squad Goals

L to R: Rusty Bizaro, Jake Markert,
Allison Ruman, Dustin Woywod

A little background on this day: "squads" are groups of four or five who are always next to each other in halftime.  Our squad leader (Rusty) got the drill pages, and then wrote our drill and sent it to us (for example, he would write the beginning position for me [ex. 12 steps inside the front hash, 4 steps outside the 35], then my move [ex. forward march 12], and then my end position [if we follow this scenario, I would then be on the front hash, 4 outside the 35]), and we wrote it in our music.  There are about 80 squads in the Blue Band, it makes learning the halftime show much more efficient.

Our squad decided to do a Hawaiian theme. Other squads did things like Scooby Doo

L to R: Elise Grovanz, David Snowiss, Peter Meglis, Taylor Buchta, Mike Renzulli

Or perhaps a geek squad

L to R: Mathilde Hsia, Amy Winder, Justine Scheloske, Mike Good
Photo credit to Amy Winder

Squad goals was only the beginning of a season full of spirit


There was twin day

Elise Grovanz and Allison Ruman

Dress up like your favorite staff member day

L to R: Elise Grovanz, David Cree, Allison Ruman

(that one was kind of unfair, Mr. Cree is everyone's favorite staff member)

Pajama Day

L to R: Elise Grovanz, Josh Hackenberg, Rachel Neff

We can always count on our Vice President to remind us of spirit days with some cute spirited puppers

All in all, spirit days certainly aren't the most important part of the Blue Band, but they sure do make those long Tuesday practices a little more fun!

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2016 Away Trip: Pitt vs. PSU

This year's away trip was the Pitt vs. PSU game.  I know, one of the biggest games of the year, and, conveniently, one of the earliest.  As a rookie it was hard enough trying to remember everything for game days, let alone having to do it across the state.  My last two posts were about game day traditions, and, as it turns out, away trips have traditions of their own.

The first one?  The classic bus nap pics.  Everyone has fallen asleep on a bus before, it's kind of hard not to.  But, resist the urge to do so, or your sweet dreams could be advertised for all to see.

Photo credit to Alex Gilgore

Photo credit to Mike Good

Another tradition is bus flips, which is essentially just doing a front flip in the aisle of the bus.  Unfortunately, no one snapped any photos of bus flips this year.

This year, however, one of the buses (luckily not mine) had no air conditioning.  It was in the 90s that weekend, so that made it a long trip to Pittsburgh for the mellophones and sousaphones.  Unfortunately, it also made it a long trip for the rest of us, because all of the other buses stopped while they tried, unsuccessfully, to fix the mello/sousa bus.  The holdup made us all late for dinner, which made for a cranky 320 college students.


After we arrived in Pittsburgh, we had practice at a local high school.  It was really humid outside, and then it started raining, but the rain was almost warm, so we all came out of practice looking like we had just run the New York City Marathon.

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

Some of our members are from Pittsburgh, so, naturally, their families came to see them

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

After practice, the Blue Band officers presented faculty from the high school with a poster signed by all 320 members of the Blue Band.

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

After the practice, we headed to the hotel and ate dinner and just kind of hung out for the night.  Some people went out to see the city of Pittsburgh, some stayed back at the hotel and lounged around, and some went to sleep very early.  Honestly, those people were probably the smartest, because our 6 am wakeup call came very soon.

Game day was a much different story than the night before.  We were all sluggish from lack of sleep, and not particularly excited to see what warm welcomes the city of Pittsburgh and all of the Pitt fans had to say to us.  The first thing we did after getting off of the buses was warm up by section next to the mighty Monongahela.

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

As you'd expect, Pitt fans weren't the most friendly towards anyone or anything affiliated with Penn State, including the Blue Band.  As we warmed up next to the Monongahela River, students shouted things not appropriate for young ears at us, to which we responded, "Thank you, go State" with a smile.  Unfortunately, most of their apparel also featured some anti-PSU slurs, so I don't have any pictures of the Pitt fans to show to you.

After we ate our game day subs, we performed at a pregame pep rally

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

Things worked a little differently in Pittsburgh than at home.  We did not have any pregame performance time, and they only gave us five minutes at halftime, so the directors decided to perform our pregame show at halftime.  No pregame show meant we went right up into the stands.  We watched the Pitt band pregame performance, and they were very good.  The bands were civil to each other, and that's all that matters, right?

No matter whether you love or hate the Steelers, being in Heinz Stadium was a pretty cool thing to experience.

Photo credit to Annemarie Mountz

As you all know, it was an extremely stressful game, and even though we were allowed to sit, we were all standing for the entire game.  The suspense was heightened by the intermixing of Pitt and Penn State fans throughout the stadium, so no matter what was happening on the field, someone close to you was always yelling.

Nobody had a voice when we came back to University Park the next day.  The 42-39 loss was a tough one, and the ride home was somewhat disheartening, but overall, my first away trip experience with the Blue Band was a great one.

Photo credit to Evan Savage

To view more of Annemarie Mountz's Blue Band photography, click here

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