Appalachian State University Marching Mountaineers

Marching Mountaineers
North Carolina's Band of Distinction
School Appalachian State University, Hayes School of Music
Location Boone, North Carolina, USA
Conference Sun Belt Conference
Founded 1933
Director Dr. Kevin Richardson
Members 250
Uniform Half black/half white jacket with gold accents and "Block A" on the front, gold cape draped over the right shoulder, black pants, socks, and shoes, black shako with black feather plume.

The Marching Mountaineers, also known as North Carolina's Band of Distinction, is the 250+ member marching band of Appalachian State University. The band performs at all Home Mountaineer football games and travels to select away games each year. The Marching Mountaineers were a participant in the 2006 and 2014 London New Year's Day Parade.[1] The Band of Distinction also marched in the 2011 Cabalgata de Reyes in Madrid.

Instrumentation

The Marching Mountaineers are divided into the following sections:

Songs

The Band of Distinction performs a Pre-game show about 20 minutes before kickoff. The show begins with a Simple Gifts fanfare which then rolls into the song Carolina Pride. The band then performs America the Beautiful and the National Anthem while the Colors are Presented followed by the Appalachian State alma mater, Cherished Vision. A tunnel is then formed by the band members that the football team enters the stadium through, a few minutes before kickoff. . The fight song, Hi Hi Yikas is also performed before kickoff and numerous times throughout each game. Before every Mountaineer kickoff the band performs the Olympic Fanfare (Buglers Dream). The bands Post game show after every football game that includes songs from their halftime repertoire along with several other tunes. Their signature post-game tunes are Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al," Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring and "The Tennessee Waltz." The Waltz, as it is known by members, was added as a standard of the band in the 1970s, when the fans began requesting the song be played after every game, after it was played as part of a halftime show.

Appalachian Marching Band Festival

The Appalachian Marching Band Festival, is a competition hosted by the Marching Mountaineers for high school marching bands every fall in Kidd Brewer Stadium on the campus of Appalachian State University. The Competition, which is organized by the Rho Tau Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, provides these bands a performance venue where they are critiqued by a panel of nationally recognized adjudicators and a chance to perform in a collegiate stadium. The top band of the day receives the Chancellors Cup which is sponsored and presented by the chancellor of Appalachian State University. 2015 is the 36th annual Marching Band Festival.

Controversy

University of Miami - Appalachian State Color Guard Allegations

On Saturday September 18, 2016 the Mountaineers football team hosted a Power 5 conference member for the first time with the University of Miami. In front of a record high crowd, it also marked the first time they hosted a top 25 opponent and the main ESPN network would broadcast an Appalachian State home game.[2] Local media outlets dubbed it "the biggest event ever to take place in Boone."[3]

Several hours after the game, Sophie Randleman alleged on a public social media post that members of the Marching Mountaineers color guard were "assaulted...groped, sworn at, taunted, and touched in ways that were definitely not asked for" when Miami's football team ran on to take the field for their pregame prayer.[4] No incidents were reported to police onsite and the allegations came approximately 11 hours after the events would have taken place.[5] Prior to kickoff, the Mountaineers Color Guard had positioned themselves into the visiting team's sideline in the direct path of where Miami's players and its staff were instructed to go.[6][7] Randleman widely publicized her post and accused Miami of other incidents without specifying where or when they occurred.[8] After learning of the allegations, Miami's athletic department opened a formal investigation.

In an interview with the Palm Beach Post two days later, Randleman failed to provide any witnesses to corroborate detail towards the allegations when provided a link to a video[9] where no members of the Marching Mountaineers could be seen falling to the turf.[10] She nor any other members of the Marching Mountaineers could provide descriptions, jersey numbers, or last names of any of the alleged Miami players. Three days after the incident, Randleman told CBS that they had not yet met with police,[11] despite video showing several police officers visible near the color guard during the pregame that would have been witnesses.[12] Boone police told local news High County Times that there were no issues surrounding the game.[3] Six videos of Miami's entrance shot by fans, ESPN, and press media showed no indication of Randleman's allegations.

Following Randleman's CBS interview, Miami's Athletic Director announced that they had found zero evidence[13] and were concluding their investigation after "a school review of multiple videos and social media posts and interviews with possible witnesses revealed no evidence of wrongdoing by (Miami) players."[6][14] Appalachian State subsequently closed their investigation as well after it was unable to find any credible evidence backing up Randleman's claims.[15][16][17][18] Appalachian State's Associate Athletics Director Zeke Beam noted that "the University of Miami went above and beyond to review the incident."[19][20][21]

Gallery

References

  1. Sherrie Norris (2005-12-08). "ASU Marching Band Heads To London". The Mountain Times. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
  2. Kirshner, Alex (2016-09-16). "How App State talked Miami into a home-and-home". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  3. 1 2 "KBS Attendance Not Only Record Broken, Boone ABC Sells Nearly $70K of Liquor Friday - High Country Press". www.hcpress.com. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  4. "Miami Kneels for Pregame Prayer". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  5. "Appalachian State Color Guard Says Miami Football Players "Assaulted" Them When They Ran Out of the Tunnel". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  6. 1 2 "Miami says players didn't 'grope,' 'shove' Appalachian State students | Palm Beach Post". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  7. "Miami AD says Hurricanes investigating claim of pregame incidents". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  8. "Miami Hurricanes Accused of Assaulting App St Band". Sports Illustrated. 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  9. "Appalachian State students allege Miami players 'shoved,' 'groped' during pregame entrance | Palm Beach Post". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  10. Sun-Sentinel, South Florida. "UM finds no evidence to back up Appalachian State band member's accusations of shoving, groping". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  11. Faherty, Dave (2016-09-20). "CBS Interview with Sophie Randleman". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  12. "Miami APP Sate Football Team Entrances". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  13. "Miami finds no mistreatment of color guard". Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  14. Staff, AB. "U. of Miami: No Evidence Behind App State Allegations - Athletic Business". www.athleticbusiness.com. Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  15. Taylor, John (2016-09-22). "Appalachian State AD apologizes 'to all those impacted by the situation' prior to Miami game". CollegeFootballTalk. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
  16. "Schools finish inquiry into accusation by Appalachian State color guard member against Miami players". Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  17. Sun-Sentinel, South Florida. "Appalachian State apologizes for incident created when Miami took the field as band was still playing". Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  18. Journal, Bret Strelow, Winston-Salem. "Schools finish inquiry into accusation by Appalachian State color guard member against Miami players". Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  19. "UM says football players didn't push and curse other team's band". Retrieved 2016-09-21.
  20. Taylor, John (2016-09-22). "Appalachian State AD apologizes 'to all those impacted by the situation' prior to Miami game". CollegeFootballTalk. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  21. Sanchez, Josh. "Miami finds no evidence of assault against Appalachian State student". Retrieved 2016-09-22.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.