Marching band raising the roof with record number of players

When the UConn Marching Band paraded onto Rentschler Field last Thursday night for the Huskies’ first football game of the year, there were nearly 300 musicians wearing the Blue and White.

It was a record number of members for the band; a number that provides a sound that should thrill ticket-holders. And it’s a number that nearly raised the roof of the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, when the band played several pieces during Convocation on Aug. 26.

“It’s a good band,” says David Mills, the band’s director. “We can stay on the field with anyone.”

When Mills first took leadership of the band in 1990, becoming the fifth director in the group’s 57-year history, there were only about 135 members, he says. In 1997 it started a steady climb, hitting 200 members in 2000, and it has continued to climb ever since.

“Two hundred is a significant number,” Mills says. “It really changes things. It’s a different feeling. It’s not such a personal affront to the other musicians if something doesn’t go right, and there’s more willingness on their part to sacrifice for the group, like practicing or playing in the rain. It’s a magic figure.”

Brian Coffill, a junior who is one of the band’s section leaders, says “bigger is definitely better. Rentschler Field is a difficult place to fill up with sound. With a larger band, we’re more powerful.”

With the advent of Division I-A football, the numbers have continued to grow.

And as applications to the Storrs campus soared, and the admissions office became more selective, the band, too, benefited.

“There are more students coming to Storrs every year who are in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, and that’s where you get a lot of excellent band members,” Mills says.“They tend to be good students, involved students.”

They also tend to be solid musicians.

Mills can talk about the UConn Marching Band until he is Husky blue in the face: how hard the musicians work, how well they perform, their academic credentials, how organized they are.

“These kids work very hard, much like the athletes on campus,” he says. “People may not notice, but playing in the band is very physical. On game (football) days, we’re on the bus at 7:30 a.m., practicing at 9 a.m., performing on-field before the game, playing throughout the game, and performing a 10-minute show at halftime – lots of movement, creating formations, all the while carrying and playing an instrument. It’s a long, strenuous day.”

And, unlike some fans, they stay until the end, whether the game is close or out of reach, whether it’s in the pouring rain or driving snow. They also hit the field and play after the game, while the fans shuffle out. Throw into the mix that it’s often very uncomfortable – early in the season it’s too hot in their uniforms, and later in the year it’s too cold.