Pace’s Pep band has helped students get filled with school pride during each game recently after its launch last year.

The pep band was a project created by Lisa Bardill Moscaritollo, Dean for students at Pace and Drew Brown, the Associate Athletic Director for External Operations, in order to increase school pride and student involvement on campus.

“Whenever you see college sports on t.v. or in high school there’s always a live pep band that always plays during time outs. I just think it’s important to have one,” said Nick Farris, a member of the pep band.

The band currently has over ten members, however, they have been having difficulty getting more students involved and have had to turn away students in the past due to their lack of funding.

“We don’t have the funding to provide instruments for students so a lot of students that wanted to join, couldn’t. I hope that in the future, if we’re still successful, we can receive some funding,” said Farris.

Aside from having your own instrument, the only other requirements are to know how to play an instrument and to come to their weekly practice.

“A lot of us joined because we’re passionate about music and we miss being able to play regularly. I stayed because of the other members as well,” said Farris.

Since the start of this semester, the band has played at every home football game, including the homecoming game and provided the students and team members with the pep that they need.

“The homecoming game was a lot of fun. I liked the pep band’s performance, I didn’t even know we had one until today. I enjoyed the marching band in high school so it’s pretty cool that we have a band here,” said Jaime Reuter, junior at Pace.

Although the pep band is fairly new to Pace, several students have shown interest in joining next semester or next year.

“I was in the marching band at my high school, I’m going to consider joining next year. It’s unfortunate that they don’t provide instruments but I’d be willing to bring my instrument from home,” said Kaila Williams, junior at Pace.

However, many students that have shown their interest in joining the marching band aren’t sure of who to contact and where to find the information.

“I’ve seen the pep band at games but I’ve never seen any flyers up and no one ever mentions who to go to,” said Williams.

Students interested in joining the band can reach out to Jessika Pietryka, the assistant band director for the pep band at Pace by emailing her at [email protected] or by reaching out to Dean Lisa at [email protected].

The pep band currently meets on Fridays for practice.