Marching Band Moving Up
In 2013, Blase Cermak took over the marching band. His first goal as director was to change the poor attitude of the band. Before his arrival, the band had not been in a positive place. Members weren’t having fun, the band wasn’t succeeding in competitions, and overall, self-esteem was poor. Stacey Peterik, former assistant director and current director of the band, says “When I started here, I was new and so was the head marching band director. It’s always hard when you have two new people taking over a program; the students don’t know if they can trust them yet and if they’re willing to work hard for those directors.”
Dandi McCartney, senior clarinetist in the band, has seen first-hand how the attitude has changed overtime. McCartney says “As a whole, we’re more focused and hard working than we were my freshman year.” McCartney says “There’s no longer the mentality that because we’re Urbana we suck, we are proud to be in the Tiger Marching Band.”
That focus and work that she mentioned has shown so far this season. The band usually only plays their show music, no marching, at the first football game. This year? The band marched and play the first two movements of their 2018 show “A Pirate’s Adventure” at the first home football game.
If you have not seen the 2018 Tiger Marching Band yet, you should try to as soon as possible. Their next public performance is the Urbana vs. Bloomington football game on September 22 at Memorial Stadium.
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