Although the 6,100 seat Winthrop Coliseum rarely reaches full capacity during basketball season, there is one section that is almost never empty.
“We’re trying to elevate the gameday atmosphere,” said Screamin’ Eagles Pep Band director Dr. Douglas Presley. “At home, one of the ways that we create a home–court advantage is by cheering the team on.”
The Winthrop pep band, which Presley has led for six years, attends almost all men’s and women’s home basketball games, and stands at floor level directly beside the visiting team’s bench. Pep band members lead the crowd in different cheers throughout the game.
“We repeat the same cheers over, and over, and over again to make it easy for the student body to jump in,” Presley said.
The Screamin’ Eagles also play music during games, though the NCAA rules state that they cannot make noise through their instruments while the ball is in play.
Junior alto saxophonist Casey Green said “Confident” by Demi Lovato is her favorite song that the pep band plays. The 2015 hit is one of the more modern pieces in the band’s repertoire.
According to Presley, the pep band incorporates new music “as budget allows.” While he said he’ll purchase a new song every now and then, he also sees the value in playing classics like “Y.M.C.A.”
“Some tunes, even though they’re kind of old, we keep in there because we know that they have audience appeal and audience engagement,” Presley said.
Not every game has the same audience to engage though. Based on statistics published on winthropeagles.com, men’s games have had an average attendance of 2,440 people so far this season, compared to an average of just 282 people at women’s games.
“There’s a lot more energy at the men’s games to feed off of,” Green said. “However, at women’s games, the pep band can get away with cheering a lot more and playing a lot more.”
No matter how big the crowd is, the Screamin’ Eagles try to have the most school spirit.
“In recent years, the pep band has kind of become the poster child for all of the cheering that goes on at the games,” said pep band graduate assistant Alexander Dudek. “I think that it’s had a pretty large effect on the basketball culture here.”
That culture includes ten NCAA Tournament appearances, including one in 2017.
“A lot of people hadn’t flown before, so it was cool that we all got to go out on a plane,” Dudek said. “It was just us and the team and the cheer squad.”
The NCAA only allows schools to bring up to 29 pep band members to the NCAA Tournament, but the Winthrop students that were selected to go to Milwaukee made their presence known.
“There were a couple of kids that got interviewed by a local news team when we were there doing our walk-through,” Presley said. “The experience that the students get … you just can’t quantify it.”
“In October when we’re talking about missing spring break potentially because of the NCAA Tournament, eyes roll and people sigh and shoulders shrug,” Presley said, “but while we were missing spring break on the tournament, no one would have thought twice about it.”
With both Winthrop squads bolstering winning records in conference play at this point in the season, the pep band is hoping more people will show up to support the teams.
“It’s not hard to come out to a few games,” Green said. “The pep band can lead the cheers. All you’ve got to do is listen and copy.”
You can catch the Screamin’ Eagles at Winthrop Coliseum at the next men’s game on Jan. 23 and the next women’s game on Jan. 28.
Photo provided by David Griffin
