Logistic constraints, not

apathy, prevents Band

presence at all games

To the editor:

Before beginning this letter, the Stanford Band would like to say that it hopes the Cardinal field hockey team will have a great game on Saturday against the University of North Carolina. We wish we could be there.

The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band is disappointed that yesterday’s editorial [“Poor reception for Stanford’s field hockey champions”] accused the Band of poor support of Cardinal field hockey, based on speculation and a lack of facts. We know that it would have been ideal to play at the NorPac Field Hockey Championship game, and we would have liked to do it. The absolute fact of the situation is that every fall, the Band has a standing commitment with the Athletic Department to play at all home football games. Home game Saturdays are busy for us, especially around the time when the field hockey game took place.

In a serious lapse of responsible journalism, you claim that “The Band (or even a small contingent) could have played at the field hockey game and then rushed over to the stadium for the second quarter of the football game.” This statement is pure speculation. No portion of the Band could have done this. Who would have directed that portion? Our drum major was occupied with the full band, and our managers were busy with keeping us organized and on time, and facilitating our entry into the stadium. Additionally, if the Band were to send the minimum number of musicians necessary for playing our songs, we would be short on numbers for playing the national anthem and performing our pre-game field show.

These tasks may not seem like top priorities to fans of other sports, but they are what we do on Saturdays, and we plan for and rehearse them far in advance. It is unfortunate that the field hockey championship took place on a football day. Were it on any other day, we could and would have attended and played loud enough to deafen the Cal fans.

Another disappointing example of the poor foundation of your editorial was the mention of the fan who did not get a reply from the Tree to a request to appear at the field hockey game. This unfairly portrays the Tree as someone who ignores fans. You do not mention which channels this fan went through to contact the Tree. Most true Stanford fans know that the Tree is the Band’s mascot, and does not attend events without the Band. Thus, all requests for the Tree are requests for the Band, and should be made as any other request for a Band appearance: through our managers, via phone or email. We were not contacted in this way regarding the field hockey game.

As a final statement of how much we would have liked to play for Cardinal field hockey, we offer the following anecdote: Part way through the football game, several of us checked the field hockey score with an iPhone. When we found out that Stanford had pulled off the win, we called starting goalie Madi Bell ‘08 to offer our congratulations. We had to shout over the noise of the football game, and so that she could hear us over her teammates’ continuing celebrations. The Stanford Band is made up of Cardinal sports fans who are often close friends of the athletes we support. As much as we would like to, we can’t be in two places at once.

Cooper Johnson ‘08

LSJUMB Public Relations co-Coordinator