Women's America East Basketball Championship

Today the UMBC Pep Band was on the road…again. I got up this morning around 1, after having about 3 hours of sleep. The band arrived at the RAC at 2:15 this morning and boarded a tour bus for our trip to the women’s America East Conference quarter finals. Our bus left around 3 AM, and with only one rest stop, we were able to make it to Hartford, CT in about 6 hours. The bus ride was pretty unexciting, and most people slept during the ride up. In fact, as I type this entry now we are on our way to Binghamton, NY. “Boondock Saints” is playing on the TV screens, and mostly everyone is asleep. I guess that’s what staying up all night will do to you. But now back to today’s events.
Once we arrived at Hartford University, we once again had to wait to set up our gear until the basketball teams had finished practicing in the arena. We played a few pregame songs, as always starting with “Land of a Thousand Dances”. Once the game started, the Pep Band did their best to root for the Big Dawgs and cheer the team on to another victory, but our efforts weren’t good enough. The women’s team played pretty well, but they just couldn’t make enough baskets to counter the 3 pointers that Binghamton kept sinking.
But there were several highlights of the game: 1) Freshman guard Michelle Kurowski lead the Retrievers with 23 points. She scored the majority of the team’s points during the first half and helped keep the Retrievers in the game. Look out Carlee, you’ve got competition. And 2) The Pep Band and the Boston University Pep Band (who had arrived early for their game @ 2) got the chance to play together. This 45+ piece combined ensemble and the great acoustics of the Chase arena made for a powerful sounding band that helped to rally the crowd and support our home team.
Looking back on today, it would have been cool if the women’s team won their game today, but on the flip side, at least the Pep Band only has to play at one game tomorrow and can then make the bus ride back to Baltimore. After spending 8 hours in a bus seat you long for your own cozy bed.
Although today ended in an upset, it was still a good game, and the trip was enjoyable. The Pep Band is looking forward to the men’s game tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll leave victorious. Time to catch some sleep now. That hotel bed looks really comfortable…

More Praise for the UMBC Pep Band

So ever since the Pep Band got a shout out on an Albany sports blog, I've been keeping an eye out for more mentioning of the band in the blog world. I've even set up Google alerts to email me whenever there is a story published that has the keywords 'UMBC Pep Band'. With any luck, I'll probably get an email once this entry is posted.
Because I set up this alert, I got an email the other day telling me about a post that was made on a blog praising the pep band. I'll post the link below so that you can check it out for yourself. The blog also mentions some things about the men's team, so be sure to check that out also. As I get more alerts I'll post links to the stories.
Here's the link to the most recent story about the UMBC Down and Dirty Dawg Band.

This is OUR house

We just got back from Albany an hour ago, and as I type this blog entry I am reminded that I have to attend class at 9am tomorrow (not looking forward to it). Today's game against U Albany was a pretty nice one, but once again UMBC held their ground. I'm too tired tonight to go into much detail, but suffice it to say that we left our impression on U Albany. By the end of the game several angry spectators were throwing trash at the trumpet section. We would like to think that it was because of their frustration at losing the game, but it was most likely due to the fact that we were chanting "This is our house!" during the last 11 seconds of the game. Whatever it was, we surely upset the U Albany fans and showed them who was boss.
Although some of the fans were upset, we did get a couple of positive remarks from some of the more "mature" Albany fans. All in all, I think the UMBC Down and Dirty Dawg Band made a good impression on the crowd at the SEFCU arena, and we're looking forward to the championship game against Binghamton. Next weekend will be very busy the band as we plan to travel between Hartford and Binghamton to support both the men's and women's teams as they compete for a spot at the Big Dance.
GO BIG DAWGS! THIS IS OUR HOUSE!

Praise for the UMBC Pep Band

As I was checking my inbox this morning (mostly looking for emails about school delays) I came across an email from one of the Pep Band student leaders. He had found an article on the internet praising the pep band for their wonderful performance at the Last Growl game on Sunday.
I had heard that the pep band had received rave reviews during some of the games that were televised on MASN, but this email came as a nice surprise in my inbox this morning. Check out the link below to the post and read for yourself about the Down and Dirty Dawg Band! Here's the post.
And for all the members of the D&D Dawg Band, good work and hopefully we get some more good reviews at this weekend's America East tournament in NY!