Pep bands have long been a secret weapon for home teams at high school and college basketball and football games. They energize the fan base, overwhelm visiting teams with noise and pump up the ego of hometown heroes. Speaking from first hand experience, there is nothing like running out onto the football field with a roaring band and rabid fans cheering you on.
Watching the University of Delaware marching band at home games while my daughter attended the school was better than the football game itself… the clip below is four minutes long, but worth a quick watch and skipping ahead to the 1:13 mark.
I have also been quite taken with the Boston College band and the lather they build up before home football games as they march through the tailgate area.
Unfortunately pep bands at the high school level have become less present.
A group of spirted football moms at the local Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY, that competes in the metro New York areas Ivy Prep School League, have taken matters into their own hands (literally).
“How hard can you blow?” asks head Kazoo Nut Lydia McMahon (pictured on the left below) when screen potential members.
Armed with kazoos and a robust play list that would make the over rated cover band Zach Brown jealous, this group of a dozen plus moms have certainly contributed to the excitement surrounding the Hackley Hornets 8-0 journey as they head into the championship against Brooklyn’s Poly Prep HS.
If I didn’t witness it myself, I would never believe the spark this group of ladies injected into the boys effort, and (probably most importantly) the distraction created to the opposing team when listening for the snap count and other game cues. The Hackley Football Kazoo Crew has produced a meaningful home field advantage.
Led by Lydia McMahon, who rustled up a selection of drums from a neighborhood preschool and arms the resident team grandfather (a kick-ass US Military Vet to boot) with an Atlanta Braves style Wahoo drum, the rambunctious gang of private-school moms have used music to unite and celebrate this important moment in time for them and their sons.
The group is highly organized and even designed logo shirts and custom roadie cups with built in bass note kazoos. At the last game they armed dozens of students with the high pitched noise makers.
Although I never imagined writing a story for the Thunderbird Ranch Ramble music column at one of these games, I became increasingly inspired seeing the tangible impact their energy brought to the game.
Funny enough, when I casually asked Lydia about how the Hackley Football Kazoo Crew all started, she got very serious and told me she interviews potential members asking them, “how hard can you blow?”
I’m going to leave that one alone as the boys on the team may end up reading this.
Lydia continued with a deadpan face, that the idea for kazoo’s all started when she wanted to replicate the sound of the Hackley mascot – a hornet.
Mission accomplished, and yet, another great story of the power of music to bring people together.
Good luck to the boys this weekend, and god bless the Hackley Football Kazoo Crew.
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