It's time to take marching band seriously

I’m just about as unathletic as they come. I’m slow, clumsy and as nimble as the barbecue in your backyard. So I had to quit wrestling. After two years of being on the team, I was sick of broken bones, twisted ankles and getting plowed onto the floor by a guy twice my size. Naturally, I looked for something less intensive. I wanted to find myself a physical activity that wouldn’t put my life in jeopardy and my self-esteem into nonexistence. That’s why I joined the most daunting, forbidding and menacing sport at Samo - Marching Band.Ok, I’m kidding. I joined marching band because I assumed that all I had to do was walk my tuba around a football field with a group of awkward band geeks. This non-sport would be nothing compared to getting brutalized by angry men in tights. But after my first day of band camp, I realized that I had made one of the most misinformed decisions of my high school career – marching band was not only deserving of being called a “sport,” but it may be one of the single most difficult and labor-intensive activities on campus.Too often, activities are called “sports” just because of their high levels of physicality. No one has ever challenged the notion that football is a sport, because more often than not, football’s athletes are hardened jocks that endure extensive strain on their bodies. And if an activity doesn’t require a heightened level of strength and brawn, it can’t be called a sport. Because marching band doesn’t involve foolish amounts of hard-hitting and pain, and the usual marcher is is 5’3” and has never seen a weight room, sorry marching band, many Samo students think you don’t make the cut.However, marching band is not deprived of physical exertion. Marchers must walk in all directions carrying instruments upwards of 60 pounds, and maintain their footing after contorting their body to accommodate their movement. And while other athletes have the luxury of taking deep breaths when tired, marchers must stream continuous airflow into their instruments for the duration of their 9-12 minute performances. Though I have no exact science to validate this, it’s kind of like running two miles and have Mike Tyson sock you in the diaphragm. What results is a balancing act between breathing and music making that few can master well.But still, we all know that marching band’s levels of physicality don't exactly compare to the majority of sports at Samo. While the physical exertion of marching band may be difficult for some, walking on a field is dwarfed by the high physical intensities of water polo and football. So what drives marching band into “sporthood?” While no marching band athlete is akin to a quarterback or wide receiver, what physical strain exists in marching band is compounded by the unbelievable coordination, precision and exactness that comes with marching a performance.To create a number of shapes and formations, marchers have to move across a field and land in ultra-specific locations. If a marcher is just one or two steps off from his or her designated position, there will be a break in the form, causing judges to perceive the band as sloppy and unorganized, and thus lessening a band’s score. To score higher, a band’s routine must be fluid and elegant, so marchers are forced to not only glide to the right location, but do so in an exact amount of steps and beats. And in order to properly perceive what pattern the band is arranged in, marchers are required to evenly space themselves between their fellow members. As I learned quickly, marching performances are anything but “fast-walking,” but rather a juggling of a dozen different tasks and assignments, all perfectly harmonized throughout a hundred different students.If that may have sounded confusing to read, try actually performing those tasks on a field. See, each individual aspect of marching band won’t turn any heads. Alone, coordinated walking, playing music and carrying instruments are activities that anyone can do with a little effort. But the crazy combination of skills and talents that is marching band embodies exactly what makes a sport a sport - challenging ourselves to competitively perform otherwise ridiculous tasks for the sake of entertainment, and becoming better people in the process. And that’s exactly what marching band is.