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SOTOGAB

When I was a student and we were halfway decent in basketball, playing in the marching band during football season was a requirement in order to play during basketball season. With the basketball dark ages we just went through, that incentive disappeared and the marching band participation dropped off a cliff.
 
inspectah said:
LOL, well that may explain why the band's size has fallen off over the last decade or so.
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That’s what band alums from back then tell me. Getting the seniority to go was plenty of motivation to be in marching and pep.

One of my friends who was in the band back then is now a band director at a major university so he goes to the NCAA Tournament regularly now which is pretty cool.
 
Who is the band director? A band shrinking to something that small points to people not wanting to be in band. If it has been the same person for 20 years, that would point to a problem at the position, at recruiting, at retention, etc...
 
Pay local high school kids. $1000 a pop - $100K gets us another 100 in the band.
 
Yep, the blame lies with dm with no hope of pep band NCAAT play:


78-111 in his six years with the Demon Deacons, including a 30-80 mark in conference play.
 
PhDeac said:
The band is about a third of the size it was in the 90s.
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The largest SOTOGAB in recent history was 126, shortly after the Orange Bowl year. Currently at about 70 members. The administration has handcuffed recruiting by not allowing direct access to incoming students' information, so it is no longer possible to make direct contact with the majority of prospective band members. It's up to the student to make the first contact. That is a major reason why the numbers are down....no opportunity to build a relationship with the incoming band student to make them feel wanted and welcome.
 
banddeac said:
The largest SOTOGAB in recent history was 126, shortly after the Orange Bowl year. Currently at about 70 members. The administration has handcuffed recruiting by not allowing direct access to incoming students' information, so it is no longer possible to make direct contact with the majority of prospective band members. It's up to the student to make the first contact. That is a major reason why the numbers are down....no opportunity to build a relationship with the incoming band student to make them feel wanted and welcome.
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This all sounds ridiculous. I will also say that there is no way there were 70 people last night. It was less than 50.
 
deacdixieboy said:
Yeah y’all. The band used to be 2x (or more) the size it is now when the student body was smaller by about 1000 people. I think SoCal let’s community members be a part of the band. It may be time for us to do the same. I agree that last night was embarrassing. We should’ve invited WSSU or UNC-C to join.
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That is not as easy as you make it sound. There is no time to rehearse with another group. Community members in the band = major liability issues.
 
banddeac said:
That is not as easy as you make it sound. There is no time to rehearse with another group. Community members in the band = major liability issues.
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Not to mention Covid makes trying practice indoors together almost impossible.

Tim Heath is really good, and he’s had experience with the band at Alabama, so it’s not like he’s never seen what big time marching band is like.

I refuse to believe that a school like wake doesn’t have a higher than average percentage of students with some band experience in High School. I really wish one of our big donors or the Athletic Department would heavily invest in scholarship dollars for the band. That’s how you grow it. And honestly, more financial aid to students to help with economic diversity on campus as the sticker rises is a good thing. There’s no reason band shouldn’t be viewed as a part of the game day atmosphere. It adds as much as the video packages, flyovers, etc. maybe more so.
 
banddeac said:
The largest SOTOGAB in recent history was 126, shortly after the Orange Bowl year. Currently at about 70 members. The administration has handcuffed recruiting by not allowing direct access to incoming students' information, so it is no longer possible to make direct contact with the majority of prospective band members. It's up to the student to make the first contact. That is a major reason why the numbers are down....no opportunity to build a relationship with the incoming band student to make them feel wanted and welcome.
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Why on earth aren't we allowed to contact prospective band members? That seems nuts.
 
Deacfreak07 said:
I refuse to believe that a school like wake doesn’t have a higher than average percentage of students with some band experience in High School. I really wish one of our big donors or the Athletic Department would heavily invest in scholarship dollars for the band. That’s how you grow it. And honestly, more financial aid to students to help with economic diversity on campus as the sticker rises is a good thing. There’s no reason band shouldn’t be viewed as a part of the game day atmosphere. It adds as much as the video packages, flyovers, etc. maybe more so.
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Yeah this is my main point. We’ve put so much effort into the gameday experience. The band is vital to that. I totally agree that it is arguably the most important part. I sit one section over from them during home games and there are games where I don’t hear them once the entire game.
 
deacdixieboy said:
Yes. My wife and I did both at Fanfest and during halftime because we had a bet on how few there were.
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Damn. Now I’m really mad I missed you. Barely any Wake fans at FanFest for the Battle of the Bands.
 
So we are trending under Clawson to make the CFP one day with Kern or Griffis I assume, but we have no marching band to play our fight song.

Cool.
 
PhDeac said:
Damn. Now I’m really mad I missed you. Barely any Wake fans at FanFest for the Battle of the Bands.
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Me too! We’ll have to exchange numbers before the next thing we’re both at.
 
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