Some 600 marching band members from high schools around Georgia, including all three from Bulloch County, joined Georgia Southern University's Southern Pride Marching Band last week for a halftime show that packed the field at Paulson Stadium.
Band Game Day is one of Georgia Southern’s most popular musical traditions, and GSU President Brooks Keel loves the annual event.
"Our band is an extremely important part of the Georgia Southern game day experience,” he said. “(Head football) coach Jeff Monken has spoken many times to me about the role the Southern Pride plays in our victories on the field. I am very proud of our band and how they represent the Eagle Nation."
Outside of Statesboro Southeast Bulloch and Portal high schools, visiting band students came from far and wide, including Bleckley County, Bryan County, Claxton, McIntosh Academy, North Murray, Screven County and Washington County. Also in attendance were majorettes and dancers from the schools.
Band students began their day's activities by rehearsing with the Southern Pride band at GSU's Recreation Activities Center (RAC), preparing for the halftime and postgame shows they would perform at the Sept. 7 Georgia Southern-St. Francis football game.
Southeast Bulloch High band members loved the experience.
"To be a part of such a large collection of musicians was phenomenal," said Dakota Burnsed. Freshman Collin Gawthrop said: "The GSU band day was a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and play some awesome music.”
When game time approached, a mile-long line of more than 800 marching musicians began winding its way from the RAC across campus to Paulson Stadium, where they took their seats in the stands to await the beginning of the game.
Once halftime festivities began, the football field was filled to capacity with a sea of blue and white shirts, as the high schoolers became part of Southern Pride's performance.
“This event is a fabulous opportunity for high school students to get a feel for life as a musician at Georgia Southern University and allows our music faculty members to interact with them in an on-going attempt to recruit the finest music students," said Dr. Linda Cionitti, chairperson of the Music Department.
Dr. Curtis Ricker, dean of GSU's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, shared that Band Day has roots that go way back. According to Ricker, Band Day was created when Dr. Matthew Fallin started working at Georgia Southern as assistant band director in 1991.
In creating the new Band Day, Dr. Fallin broke with tradition and blended the many different band sections together (all the flutes were put together, all of the drums, etc.) rather than having each individual band remaining as a separate unit on the field. The directors loved the idea, and Band Day became quite popular with the college and participating high schools.
Also, it was the first year all three of Bulloch County's public high school bands were represented: Southeast Bulloch, under band director Matt Olsen, attended several previous Band Days, while Statesboro, under band director Lee Collins, was making its first appearance and Portal, under band director Tim Kintzinger was participating in its second year at Band Day.
“"It was a lot of fun to spend our Saturday marching with a collegiate band," said Kimball Shaw, from Portal High school.”
For some of the Southern Pride band members, Band Day allowed them to once again play side-by-side on the field with former high school classmates. These included Southeast Bulloch alumni Francis Allen, Dallas Bryson, Zach Christiansen, Jimmy Howell and Nick Hunt, and Statesboro High alumna Letitia Poe.