Glitter & Glow

The football field was packed, the energy was electric. The marching band was ready to start the 2022 Light Show. The announcer started counting down.

“3… 2… 1!”

Lights snapped off in the stadium.

No humans were visible, only flashlights and glow sticks.

The annual Light Show was about to begin.

This long-time tradition has occurred for at least 40 years.

“I don’t know exactly when it started,” Marching Cougar Pride director Brett Eichman said. “I know It’s been happening for at least the last three band directors.”

“Everyone’s trying to look their best but also theres a mess on the sidelines.” – senior Dylan Reed

The band marches their regular show at halftime before taking the fourth quarter to prepare for the show.

“The sideline is full of duct tape, wrappers, glow glasses, Christmas lights, strings and batteries,” senior Dylan Reed said. “Everyone’s trying to look their best but also there’s a mess on the sidelines.”

The dancers attached lights to themselves and the objects they used in the show.

“We have to put glow sticks inside of the poles,” senior Alexis Petry said. “That takes forever because some of them don’t want to go in. And then we also taped glow sticks to the cubes.”

In order to avoid any accidents in the dark, there are no changes to the halftime show in terms of music or choreography. The original show is still performed for the Light Show, only in the dark.

“Light Show is a little bit dangerous,” Eichman said. “This drill has a lot of moves where you’re really close to the person. But they have practiced this thousands of times and so, in the dark with glowsticks, it’s a little trickier but they’re well trained.”

The Light Show serves as a celebration for the marching band after many months of hard work.

“Let’s just mess around and have fun,” Reed said. “Light Show isn’t super serious, we still play the show and do our best, but there are a lot of spots where we were like, ‘this isn’t super important so just have fun.’”

After the proper Light Show, the drumline remains on the track and plays cadences for those who stay. It’s a fun time for the band and the crowd.

“We flipped Nick Ruschill over and I was right next to him,” Reed said. “They had the drums flipped backward and they were yelling ‘flip him over, flip him over.’ I don’t know if it was spontaneous or planned, but Graeme Hobbs picked him up by his legs and flipped him over.”

The series of songs came to a close with the classic Cougar fight song and brought the evening to an end. For the seniors, this was one of the last times they would play “Chaos Order.”

“I’ll definitely miss it,” Reed said. “but there’s a lot of stuff I’m looking forward to leaving behind — a lot of hard work.”