Along for the joyride with an NCAA Tournament pep band

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Every pep band needs members like Stanaha’ Fox. A computer science major, Fox graduated from North Dakota State in December but stuck around to keep blowing her alto saxophone for the Bison pep band through the basketball season.

Over her time with the marching and pep bands, she has performed about 200 times — including football games and parades with the marching band, and men’s and women’s basketball games and volleyball games with the pep band. But she and her bandmates had never performed in the NCAA basketball tournament.

And so when the NDSU men’s basketball team won the Summit League Tournament to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, Fox won, too.

“I felt so happy,” Fox told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

First and foremost, March Madness belongs to the players. The bracket-clutching fans, too. But, not least, the hundreds of pep band members who support their teams with their music, voices and enthusiasm and realize their own dreams of participating in this captivating event.

Thursday afternoon, I had the privilege and pleasure of experiencing that wonder with Fox, her 28 bandmates and band director Connor Challey, who was making his own first March Madness trip.

“We don’t get to do this often,” he said.

They arrived at KeyBank Center for NDSU’s first-round game against Michigan State around halftime of the preceding game. Their trombones, sousaphones and trumpets set a buzzing rhythm as they filed through two metal detectors.

Challey was concerned when informed that there was no room for band members to warm up. They could be a bit rusty, as school was off the previous week for spring break and they hadn’t had a chance to practice together since reconvening on Tuesday.

Instead, they walked out through an arena portal to their corral behind one of the baskets. The arena’s capacity (18,400) is more than triple that of NDSU’s.

“Wow,” saxophonist Luke Nowicki said, gaping in awe at the arena’s vastness.

“Holy dang it,” fellow saxophonist Ashton Carter said.

After the green-shirted crew settled in, I chatted with Challey, who is in his fourth year directing the Bison athletic bands and is the son of a former NDSU drum major. The band — a mix of students from North Dakota and neighboring Minnesota — crosses the spectrum of majors, he said. Compensation for performing at games is a food voucher and more intangible rewards.

“Band is always family,” Challey said. “That’s the thing about every band, no matter where you go.”

Challey figured that for some, the Tuesday charter flight from Fargo, North Dakota, to Buffalo, New York, was their first time on a plane. They packed three and four into their hotel rooms. Wednesday, they dined on buffalo wings and visited nearby Niagara Falls. For the seniors, the trip marked a graduation, a family trip and a once-in-a-lifetime experience all in one.

That included mellophonist Linnea Hagestuen. She is smart enough to major in biochemistry and be able to handle missing a week of cell signal transduction and recombinant DNA technology, but not above fist-bumping Louisville’s mascot or photobombing the Bison cheerleaders when a cameraman huddled them together to shake their pompoms and shout into the camera.

Hagestuen shared Challey’s concern about the lack of warmup time but figured they would be OK “as long as we keep our mouthpieces warm because we’re all pretty experienced.” As she spoke, she cradled her mouthpiece in her hand, warming it like a hen over her eggs.

Soon enough, the Louisville-USF game finished. The nervous energy, fueled by a lack of clarity about when the band could play before tipoff, was palpable. Challey got the green light and called out for “On Bison,” the school fight song.

In front of the band, he set the tempo (“Here we go — one, two, one, two”) and off it went, the 29 students bringing life to the arena with their brass, woodwind and percussion instruments. If they were rusty, it was difficult to tell.

During select breaks in action — the timeouts were shared with the Michigan State band and the NCAA’s activations — the band played the fight song and standards such as Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” Muse’s “Uprising” and Green Day’s “Holiday.”

The band members pulsated with spirit and energy, gyrating and swinging their instruments in unison. They seemed like they were having the best time with one another, their first time performing in a major league arena in an event watched by millions.

“It was super fun to be in such an environment, surrounded by so many different fans,” Fox, the dedicated saxophonist, said after the game.

On the court, the No. 14 seed Bison were no match for No. 3 seed Michigan State, but it did not dampen band members’ enthusiasm. They continued to try to distract the Spartans’ free-throw shooters with a series of patented gimmicks, delighting when they resulted in misses. They followed along with the cheerleaders’ chants. They did the 6-7 dance (some ironically, others seemingly less so) when the Bison reached 67 points late in the game. They stood to applaud when the team’s starters were pulled.

The game came to an end. Site officials needed to clear out the arena but allowed time for a playing of the alma mater.

As she played, Hagestuen closed her eyes for a moment. Behind her, tears welled in Fox’s eyes.

Said Hagestuen, “I expected this (result), but it still hurts when it happens.”