Marching band takes Sooner Pride to Texas

Pride Director Brian Britt conducts the students as they practice their OU-Texas field show Wednesday, Sept. 29.

Britt said during rehearsals to the band: "It's like when you bowl: Sometimes it's a strike, sometimes it's not. That time it wasn't."

   As thousands of crimson and cream-colored fans descend onto Dallas this weekend for the OU-Texas game, more than 300 Sooners — members of the marching band Pride of Oklahoma will bring their OU spirit to the Red River Rivalry for the first away game of the season.

   The Pride, which performs about six shows each season, will play music from movies including “The Mummy Returns,” “The Incredibles” and “King Kong” at the pre-game and half-time shows.

Pride members load sound equipment onto the trailer Thursday.

   The band practices two hours a day four days a week — on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, as well as on game days before games start. 

   Pride Director Brian Britt said the show is going to be exciting this year for the crowd to watch, because the show always has something for everyone.

   “We do a little bit of everything, just to try to reach a different part of the fan base if we can,” Britt said. “I think [the music] is stuff that will be inspirational to the people that watch and listen to what we're doing, and the students seem to really enjoy performing it.”
   But while freshman Kevin Price is most looking forward to the Texas state fair corn dogs this weekend, he said the energy of the music is what makes this show his favorite so far. 
   “It's just really fast-paced,” said Price, who plans to be a computer science major and plays the cymbals for the drumline. Price said he joined the Pride because he wanted to keep playing percussion after high school.

   One of the drumline section leaders Shanna Hestilow said unlike in high school, all the students in the Pride work to make the shows sound as good as they can be.

Senior Shanna Hestilow practices "The Incredibles" 
music with her section Wednesday.

   “In college, everyone that's in Pride auditioned and wants to be here, and is making an effort to do well,” said Hestilow, an international/area studies senior. “[The band] takes up so much of your life, that it develops this bond between people — you're appreciating music and appreciating art and spending time doing that.”
   Hestilow said this hard work pays off at games for the students when they perform for thousands of Sooner fans. 
   “Traveling to away games like we do ... you can tell the difference that we make in the football team and in the crowd and in the way people react to [the music],” she said. 
   But the OU-Texas games are always the most interesting — to say the least — English junior Jon Lowry said.

   “You can hear the cheers and everything from our side, and as we go to the other side it’s just heavy boos and everything from the Texas fans. So you really get to feel the rivalry,” Lowry said. 

   A trumpet player for the Pride since he came to OU, Lowry said he has loved performing at games since his first show.

   “It's as close to a rock star as I'm ever going to be,” he said.
   The Pride of Oklahoma's next away game is at Texas A&M on Nov. 11.