By Catherine Laroche
Over the years, the University of Louisville pep band has contributed plenty to the fun and energetic atmosphere at many athletic events.
Most students could not imagine attending a basketball or volleyball game without hearing such instrumental sounds of “All Hail U of L” during timeouts.
The athletic department announced earlier this year they plan on taking over the pep band.
Since then, the group has involuntarily contributed to a controversial verbal battle of “he said, she said”.
“Athletics taking over the pep band is completely ridiculous,” senior trumpet player and former pep band member Gabrielle Brown said. “It makes as much sense as the School of Music taking over the football team, and you don’t see that happening.”
U of L athletics hired pep band director Alan Greener to replace Dr. Greg Byrne at the beginning of the year in hopes he could organize the band.
Most of the controversy surrounds the way the pep band situation was handled.
Former pep band members claim they heard the news from a fan at a basketball game before a representative from U of L athletics informed them of the change. They also said Byrne was not confronted about the new hire before the decision was finalized.
“There’s so much that could’ve gone differently about this whole situation,” Brown said. “Everything they wanted this new pep band to do could have been done with the group we had while under Dr. Byrne and the School of Music.”
Greener believes some former pep band members are misconstruing the whole change in pep bands.
“There was never any intent of having high school people or alumni replace band members,” he said.
“Each kid was told that the only way we could bring people in is if they didn’t step up to the plate and take their own spot. Basically it all turned into a whole “he said, she said” and that’s not the case at all.”
Greener came up with a plan that he said benefits the students of the pep band, currently there are two pep bands: alumni and student. The student band gets first choice of playing at athletic events.
On days with two athletic events, such as a football game and a volleyball game, the student pep band would attend the football game while the alumni pep band would attend the volleyball game.
“There’s more opportunity for them to perform and for people to see them,” Greener said. “It’ll affect the students minimally.”
Greener is in the progress of forming a pep band of high school students.
About ten of the high school students would be given the opportunity to play at basketball games with the college pep band. He believes being in the pep band would benefit the high school students and the pep band program because they would gain the experience and have a better shot at succeeding in auditions.
“We would like to have about 120 kids to play at every game,” Greener said. “That would prepare us for the move downtown. It has nothing to do with replacing anybody.”
The new pep band has already had a few opportunities to convince fans that change is good.
Former pep band members are not impressed with the new look.
“Athletics had quality with our group and now it is kind of hard to say what they have now,” Brown said. “The quality of the current athletic pep band is embarrassing to the school and I’m glad I have nothing to do with it. I do not consider nine people or so to make a band.”
Word spread some former pep band members were protesting against the current pep band at a volleyball game. However, both current and former pep bands said the accusation was a rumor.
“We were peaceful about it,” former pep band member James Wick said. “We spoke to the person in the pep band that we all knew, but that was the extent of what we said to them.”
Some of the advantages for the pep band of being under the control of U of L athletics is they now have an unlimited budget.
Greener said fans can look forward to seeing the pep band sporting at least three different uniforms. Another change is more pep band members will be able to travel to away games and tournaments, and they will receive $20 for each event they play.
“I like the new pep band and I think that Mr. Greener will make a great leader,” returning pep band member Bryan Newsome said. “Only time will tell, and I have no reason to believe the new pep band will be anything but great.”
Byrne declined to comment on pep band, but stated “I appreciate your offer to be interviewed on this topic. However, once the decisions were made last year regarding the pep band scenario, I decided not to comment on the topic any further and just focus on the success of the marching band program.”
