Published: October 11, 2008 12:00 am            

Stepping out with Pride

DALLAS -- Some call it a rite of passage.

A tradition.

A challenge.

But whatever you call it, OU/Texas weekend for the Pride of Oklahoma marching band is an experience.

The band left Norman at 7 a.m. Friday -- an ungodly hour for college students. They performed at four locations Friday and wake up calls set for 5:15 a.m. today.

But band members said the exhausting weekend is worth it.

"It's really busy," senior Janet Heinzelmann said of her fourth OU-Texas weekend in the Pride. "We get up super early and it's basically go, go, go ... but it's a ton of fun. It's great."

Seven buses sat outside the Holiday Inn Select in Dallas Friday evening. The band paused for a formal banquet at the hotel before performing at halftime of a high school football game in Grapevine, Texas. After that, the band split into two groups to perform at two alumni gatherings in the Dallas area.

The game against the University of Texas is the first away game of the season that the whole band of about 300 students gets to attend. It's a rite of passage for the first year Pride students, said William Wakefield, director of OU Bands.

"It's like the band come of age" at OU-Texas, he said, as the band members test their limits and learn their strengths over the weekend.

The weekend helps the whole band bond, said freshman Lena Riha, who came to Dallas with the band for the first time this weekend as a member of the color guard.

"The color guard, the older girls kind of take the younger girls under their wings," she said. The older girls adopted the younger ones to send them secret gifts, she said.

The subgroups of the Pride -- color guard, instrument sections -- have different traditions for the weekend. Sophomore Morgan Smith, also a first-year member of the color guard, said she's had fun learning more about the Pride this weekend.

"You have to get initiated, so you have to dress up in funny costumes and do certain things," she said.

Not every section has traditions, though. The trumpet section doesn't, said Drew Harnish, fifth year senior who plays the trumpet. He said the OU-Texas weekend is especially fun for freshmen, but he loves it too. After he's graduated, he said, he'll miss it. Especially "free tickets to the game."

Mellophone player Greg Evans also is spending his fifth weekend in Dallas with the Pride. He hasn't gotten tired of how supportive the fans are. He said he's heard rumors of people high-fiving the drum major with $50 bills.

Pride Director Brian Britt said the rumors are true. When he was in the Pride 1983-1986, an OU fan put a $100 bill on his snare drum.

"Many of them will come by and if they see a student at a concession stand, they'll say, 'Put your money away,'" Britt said. People support the Pride and appreciate their efforts, he said. That kind of support is normally seen at home games, but it doesn't always happen at away games. That's what makes OU-Texas special, Britt said.

"Probably the biggest thing is running into the Cotton Bowl, into the stadium, and seeing over half erupt into applause," he said.

OU-Texas games are always special, but emotions and expectations are especially high at this one, drum major Jason Marshall said. With OU ranked No. 1 and UT ranked fifth, the pressure is on for the team to beat Texas. And Marshall said he feels that pressure, too. He knows he has to rally the crowd to cheer the football team to victory.

"I like to think that the Pride has some impact on the outcome of the game."

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com

        

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