Miscommunication between band and football

Members of the Seton Hill marching band gather on the lawn outside McKenna Gym during the start of 2019 fall semester. Photo from SHU Facebook.

Percussion, brass, winds, auxiliary. 

My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace when the Griffin kept balance between the wind tribes, percussion kingdom, auxiliary nation and brass nomads. But that all changed when the Football Nation attacked. 

September 14th, 2019 the first home game of the season. As our boys geared up to take on the East Stroudsburg Warriors, our Griffin Marching band also warmed up to cheer on the boys that they share the field with. 

As halftime began, after a performance from our always fabulous Griffin Dance Team, the band took the field. Part of the way through the band’s fourth song, “Danny Boy”, a thunder was heard. 

As it grew louder the band was stopped by their director and told to get off the field to dodge the stampede that was quickly approaching. 

I didn’t know what was happening in the moment and was very scared. I thought someone was going to try and hurt us,”  said freshman Kelsey Smith on the event. 

Following the tough loss against East Stroudsburg, resulting in 18-31, the boys faced backlash for running onto the field, cutting off the band. 

Junior Logan Wiland runs the ball up field on Sept. 14 against the East Stroudsburg Warriors. Photo from SHU Athletics.

Various band members, such as Ellen Davis and Hayley Palmer felt that the incident was “disrespectful” and that the miscommunication had the potential to have caused someone to be hurt. 

After following up with both sides a few days later, it was discovered that the new football head coach had made an honest mistake, he simply did not know that.

After interviewing some of our players, they said they honestly did not even know the situation happened but those who heard the backlash were offended. 

“I was offended by the immaturity with what was said about us because it was an honest mistake.” Freshman Jordan “Bama” Davis said when asked how he felt after hearing people criticize the incident.

Fellow Freshman players Marc J. Dagobert and Christian Clutter “agreed that they were upset” over what was being said and that it was a mistake that should be fixed. 

Following the incident, Football head coach Daniel Day not only emailed the band apologizing for the mistake, but he also came to the next band practice to give a sincere apology in person, as recalled by E. Davis and Palmer.

At last, the Griffin mastered all the elements and all nations are in harmony yet again up on the hill. 

Published by Caitlin Srager

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