P-O Band Marching Into Beaver Stadium
By: Adam Paluka
Updated: April 21, 2010
PHILIPSBURG, CENTRE COUNTY - The Penn State Blue Band does more than march into Beaver Stadium to pump up Nittany Nation on football Saturdays. They also set the standard when it comes to marching band excellence in Central Pennsylvania.
Imagine you are a band member at a small local high school. You play at football games, pep rallies, community parades, but then you and your band mates get a call about playing in one of college football's cathedrals -Beaver Stadium.
That is actually happening at Philipsburg Osceola High School
“We just could not explain how we feel coming from a small community being asked to do such a large thing I mean it really puts us up there, and it sets our students expectations higher also, “ Danielle Parks, Band Advisor, said.
One drummer believes it also tells the Philipsburg-Osceola community – anything is possible.
“It looks good definitely for us because we've been trying to bring sport to the community through the band for a lot of years now and it's going to look good that we can represent them at the Blue and White Game,” Band member Toby Anderson said.
The band members said they will be closely studying the Blue Band when they are at Beaver Stadium. Not only to see how one the nation's best marches and performs, but also to see how the Mountie Marching Band measures up.
“Well, they are a great band and we are very small as they are very big so I wouldn't say fears but it's a little bit intimidating” Debi Hirschbiel, a senior at P-O, said.
The band will not just play in the upper deck during TV timeouts, they will also march in a parade leading up to the game on Saturday.
Their advisor said you should not expect to hear the same old tunes.
“We have some stuff up our sleeves. We have some traditional parade songs, but we decided to toss it up a little bit and we have some fun songs going on also,” Parks said.
This is the kind of memory Hirschbiel, a piccolo player, did not think she would ever have.
“It's really exciting, and I can say ‘Well I played and marched into Beaver Stadium.’"
Imagine you are a band member at a small local high school. You play at football games, pep rallies, community parades, but then you and your band mates get a call about playing in one of college football's cathedrals -Beaver Stadium.
That is actually happening at Philipsburg Osceola High School
“We just could not explain how we feel coming from a small community being asked to do such a large thing I mean it really puts us up there, and it sets our students expectations higher also, “ Danielle Parks, Band Advisor, said.
One drummer believes it also tells the Philipsburg-Osceola community – anything is possible.
“It looks good definitely for us because we've been trying to bring sport to the community through the band for a lot of years now and it's going to look good that we can represent them at the Blue and White Game,” Band member Toby Anderson said.
The band members said they will be closely studying the Blue Band when they are at Beaver Stadium. Not only to see how one the nation's best marches and performs, but also to see how the Mountie Marching Band measures up.
“Well, they are a great band and we are very small as they are very big so I wouldn't say fears but it's a little bit intimidating” Debi Hirschbiel, a senior at P-O, said.
The band will not just play in the upper deck during TV timeouts, they will also march in a parade leading up to the game on Saturday.
Their advisor said you should not expect to hear the same old tunes.
“We have some stuff up our sleeves. We have some traditional parade songs, but we decided to toss it up a little bit and we have some fun songs going on also,” Parks said.
This is the kind of memory Hirschbiel, a piccolo player, did not think she would ever have.
“It's really exciting, and I can say ‘Well I played and marched into Beaver Stadium.’"
