Marching Band is a Sport

                Many people think that marching band is just for entertainment during halftime for football games.  Well, those people are wrong.  I am currently in marching band and have been since my freshmen year.  Marching band for me is a sport and an excellent way to improve a person’s character.  As my band director would say, “Performing for halftime during football games is just practice and getting you prepared for competition.”  Marching band is a sport because there are many practices and performances for competitions.  Yes, there are marching band competitions.  Marching band is not all about entertainment for football and I think it should never be considered that.  When the band performs during halftime many people don’t enjoy it and are quite rude.  Being one of the band members and marching onto the field to only hear the sounds of people booing is offensive and only upsetting.  Most if not all band members hate performing for football games because people are talking during the performance and mock the band.  Marching band is so much more than that and many regular (non-band people) don’t recognize it as a competitive sport.
               Marching band is most definitely a sport.  The coaches are the band directors, the captains are the drum majors, and the rest of the band is the team.  For band the team is often considered the family because during the season we have to spend a lot of time together and get to know each other pretty well.  Practices are probably the hardest thing for marching band because everything is repetitive and practices happen so often.  To be an excellent band each person has to memorize their own spot and music, so it is more like an individual person relying on themselves to memorize stuff rather than the team.  To get the full effect every single person needs to play 100% of the time and know where their spot is in the formation because being off by one or two steps can be really obvious.  There is no bench for marching band so everyone has to perform and commit to a long season.  The band is only as strong as its weakest member.  Many schools can choose to hold auditions for marching band because so many people want to be in it, but for my school we allow anyone and everyone in.  Marching band is my life and one of the best social activities in school.