Once upon a time, I played basketball. For one season, in middle school. It was a rec league, we played a total of ten games, and I never made a basket. Truth is, despite playing them my entire life, I have never been good at sports. That's probably why I turned to the more artistic extracurriculars instead. Academic bowl, debate, and, most importantly, band.
I'm probably one of the few members of the pep band that actually knew they wanted to join before they even got here. I didn't tour the conventional way, through admissions, but instead with a family friend who started at Quinnipiac the year before me. I knew I wanted to continuing playing in college and asked what she knew about the music programs. As it turned out, Quinnipiac didn't have much of a program that she knew of, but she did know about the pep band. There it was: the chance to continue playing, with a guaranteed chance to watch to hockey team that everyone seemed so excited about.
So I joined and we played and I realized a few things. Our men's hockey team, the one that had gone all the way to the Frozen Four and caused a riot in the middle of campus the year before, actually kind of sucked. But there was another team, the women's basketball team, that people really didn't seem to be talking about. It's almost a curse with women's sports. I mean, our women's rugby team has won three national titles in a row and all anyone talks about is men's hockey.
During my freshman year, I was lucky enough to not only watch the women's basketball team go to the Sweet Sixteen, but I was fortunate enough to get to go with them. This year, they got to make that bid again by going undefeated in the MAAC and taking a 9 seed spot in the NCAA Tournament. We screamed down the house as they beat Miami, this time up north, and again as they played UConn last Monday. Just getting placed in the same bracket as UConn and holding our own against a team that had crushed its first round opponent was an amazing thing to see, and it's with a spot of pride that I say that our thirty-person band was louder than UConn's entire student section.
I cannot even begin to thank this team enough for the opportunities it has provided me in my first two years at Quinnipiac, and I don't think anyone in the band will ever be able to thank Coach Tricia Fabbri enough for the support she gives us. We exist to provide support to our athletes and it is the coolest feeling in the world to see that support recognized and returned in kind.
Thank you and go Bobcats!
