Bring the Band!

Like in offices across the country, today several of us were keeping an eye on NCAA tournament action at work today. At one point during the Radford-UNC game, a coworker comes down the hall and asks me, concerned, "Does Radford not have a band?" Granted, I'm the resident band dork, but I'm not THAT good. The question was being posed because it seemed there was no band present for them at the game. Strike that, there WAS no band present--this game was played in the Greensboro Coliseum, less than a mile from where we were sitting, and we were all familiar enough with the arena and their tournament set up that we knew where a band would be if such were present. Radford did not have a band.

A quick look on Radford's website tells me that they do indeed have a pep band that plays the basketball games and "some post season tournaments". Barring a financial impossibility (which it very well could be in this economy) what this says to me is that someone places little value on their pep band. It's a trip of less than 2 1/2 hours from Radford's campus to Greensboro, so either the University didn't value the pep band enough to send them, or the students in the band didn't value it enough to make the commitment to make the trip. If either is the case, that's quite sad.

I'm proud to be an alum of a pep band who was valued and appreciated every step of the way.