Hey Alumni (again)!
It’s your favorite trombone-playing pep band manager, Slice, here with some updates about the past nine months:
After a slow start, the hockey season really began to heat up. We bested Yale and Brown on the road, before sweeping Clarkson at home and heading over to Lake Placid. While we lost to our Massachusetts rivals there, we pulled of a miraculous shutout upset of the #1 seed Denver before finally ending our season against BU. With five hockey trips (and a split band being sent to Ivy Madness at Princeton for good measure), it was certainly one of the most thrilling seasons yet, and our members had a blast! The spring pep band was a really tight-knit group that really bonded over a difficult season. While dealing with Cornell funding and planning a trip to Manchester with 3-days notice hasn’t been ideal, seeing the reminiscing and smiles from all the band members makes the work worth it.
Things cooled down during the bring, as lacrosse had a somewhat middling performance. That’s not to say the pep band was struggling though. With the help of our social chairs, we were really able to build a pep band community. Our movie afternoons, bowling nights, and red / white crumpet events were all super well attended and gave people a place to relax after a difficult semester. We also finally started fundraising again, making a substantial profit on our stickers and selling quite a few pep shirts.
One of the major concerns at the start of the season was recruitment. We lost a ton of passionate seniors in the spring, and I was worried about the strength of the pep band. Amazingly though, we not only replaced our seniors, but we grew in size by over 20 members! This freshman class has been one of the most dedicated groups I’ve seen in the pep band. It’s exciting seeing competitive races for pep events – we had almost 100 signups for Harvard hockey – and a filled pep room during rehearsals. The incoming class has both embraced the traditions of old and made their own identities, and I’m excited to see how they grow in the coming years.
This fall, we had a slow start with the marching season, but embraced our goal of attending a varied selection of sports with frequent visits to women’s soccer and field hockey events. Of course, the hockey season has begun with a bang, with us being the last undefeated team in NCAA hockey. After a rough stretch, we just upset #5 Boston University at MSG in one of the most intense games of the season.
As we prepare for the final small trip of the season to Colgate, I could not be prouder of where the pep band is at. We’re bigger and better than we have been in years, and I’m super excited to see where we can go from here. Being pep manager has been a dream come true, and I can’t wait to see what happens next as I wave my arms from below (hopefully in time)!
Thank you all for an amazing season, and hope to see you back soon!
Max “Slice” Scialabba, ’25