Quit Suckin' On the Horn and Play!

Mr. Britt was a fantastic director of the Pride. I looked up to him in so many ways. His dedication to the students, team, and fans never ceased to impress and his time management skills are something of a god.

But Mr. Britt isn't directing the Pride any more. He's moved on, and so must we. And it's an opportunity for us to look at the Pride and ask, "What can be improved?" I've got a few opinions on the matter.

1) We need to be louder. No more over-musicality. I don't think we should ever play quieter than mezzo-forte. We have a stadium to fill with sound. If we want dynamics, we need to make the louds louder. The fans want LOUD.

2) The drill needs to be more exciting. The military show this year was without a doubt our most popular show because people love seeing pictures. Squiggles and abstract patterns don't cut it in college. We're supposed to be entertaining the crowd, not trying to impress judges.

3) We need to modernize. Throw in pyrotechnics. Bring in props. Use a guitar or synthesizer in a show, for god's sake. Halftime is our time to entertain! We're not here to kill time while the team takes a break. We're here to be the Pride of Oklahoma. And we can't be the Pride if we can't keep up with the times and stay cool.

Update: A few people have voiced concern over the use of props. I'm not necessarily saying we need to use props. The examples here were just a brain dump of show techniques we don't use. Pyrotechnics, props, and electric instruments might be a horrible idea, I don't know, but the point is we need to do cool, new stuff.

4) Retention is awful. You know Senior Day? Where the seniors all get on the field in the shape of an O and march off playing Boomer Sooner? Guess what, that used to be an interlocking OU. Now we don't have enough people to form the tiniest of U's. 1-3 play a huge factor here. Each year, more and more people get bored and drop Pride. With more exciting things for the band to do, we'll keep more people interested, keeping tradition and skill up.

5) Who cares about the alumni? Not the Pride, apparently. That needs to be fixed, big time. My mom is an alum, so I get to hear straight from the source how many alums feel they're being ignored. And most of them are from the Thrailkill era, arguably when the Pride was at its finest. We need their support and ideas!

Tonight was Dr. Traficante's interview with the students. I hadn't gone to the first two candidate's interviews, so I can't speak for their qualification for the position of Director of Bands. But I can tell you this: I walked into tonight's interview with those five points in mind. Dr. T nailed them all. Every. Single. One.

I was skeptical about Dr. T at first, but after tonight, I'm 100% convinced. Dr. Traficante is a perfect fit for the Pride. Maybe the other two guys are great, I don't know. But I do know we can't go wrong with Dr. T. If anyone is going to take the best of Thrailkill and Britt and push the Pride into a fantastic new era, it's going to be her.

So fire up for some Pride excellence, everyone. Dr. T's going to make 'em throw the babies from the upper decks.