What’s that noise? It sounds like a bird, no a plane. Wait, listen, its Longwood University’s brand new drum line!
This fall, the LU Athletics Department teamed up with the Music Department in order to make a drum line for the Big South tournament and to keep fans excited during games.
“The Big South this year wants every school to have a band at the Big South tournament,” Assistant Director of Marketing Whitney Curtis said. “It’s just something we’ve been trying to put together for a few years now. The Big South wanting us to have bands for that tournament makes it a great fit.”
Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing Eric Stoller feels that having a drum line at a sporting event adds a lot more excitement and energy to the atmosphere of the event. He also believes that this will help fill the dead space that occurs during games.
Adjunct Faculty Chris Thomas is one of the biggest reasons this drum line is coming together. “He is on board and really excited, and I think that’s the overall sentiment from that department,” Curtis said. “He’s gone out to dining halls during lunch to try to find people to participate.”
“He’s really helping [in] putting this together and he’s taken out a lot of the responsibilities of it and he’s been doing a great job,” Stoller raved while talking about Thomas.
There is a difference in the way that Thomas sees things compared to how Curtis and Stoller do. Thomas is looking at this from a more musical perspective, whereas Curtis and Stoller are looking at the drum line more from the fans’ point of view.
“I expect to give some of the students who are not music majors a chance to perform and play in the marching percussion genre,” said Thomas. “We have a lot of kids on campus that marched in high school, but for whatever reason they’re not marching in college. So, it gives the students an opportunity to do something they miss.”
Although each department is looking at things differently, both departments are helping the other equally and loving every minute of it. Even though Thomas is strictly about the music, he still is very excited to help the team bring more students, along with faculty and community members, to the games in order to gain more support for the team.
According to Stoller, the Athletic Department has provided Thomas and his drum line with uniforms. They have also provided the drum line with their own section in the stands, right next to the Lancer Lunatics, and allowed the band to have a full walk through of an in-game atmosphere inside of Willett with the cheerleading team there as well.
According to Curtis, they’d like to someday be able to make the drum line into a full band, in particular a “steel drum band.”
The drum line will make their debut on Friday when the men's basketball team plays Brown at 7 p.m.
