The William & Mary Pep Band is the scramble band of the College of William & Mary. It is a student-run ensembleSwem Library, Past Exhibits 2009. that performs at home football games in the fall sports season and basketball games in the winter sports season. Membership is open to anyone currently enrolled at the college.
History Before 1995 The early history of the William & Mary Marching Band is generally unknown. In 1922 Cyrus Clemons Briggs organized the first band at the College of William & Mary. Throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, there were various efforts to organize a marching band, each of which lasted for a few years at the most, and then collapsed. It wasn't until the early 1950s, with the coming of Charles R. Varner, that a marching band at William & Mary came to be.
Mr. Varner came to the College in the fall of 1953, as the new director of bands, and immediately started a reorganization of the way that the marching band was conceived. Now that it had a stable leader, the band began to flourish. In the '50s, '60s, and '70s, the Summer Band program, staffed by members of the William & Mary Marching band, provided an opportunity for high school students to get better with their instruments and better at marching.
However, when Chuck Varner left the College, the marching band began to hit troubled times. Diagnosed with cancer in the early 1980s, Varner was forced to retire after 33 years of service. A scholarship in his name was established by the Alumni Band Organization at William & Mary in 1989 and is awarded to an outstanding band student from any band ensembles. Varner eventually died in January 2002, after suffering from Alzheimer's.
After Varner retired, the Marching Band was re-created as a free-form "explosion style" band. This proved to be unsatisfactory to the College administration, who hired a new director of bands, Laura Rexroth. In addition to conducting the College's Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble, Rexroth was instructed to start up a traditional marching band once more. Membership rose from 17 the first year to 50 in the following years. Rexroth was able to acquire College support to purchase new marching percussion instruments in 1990, and new marching band uniforms for the 1993 Tercentenary celebration of the founding of the College. Although many at the College were in favor of the idea of a marching band, financial support for the ensemble was continually reduced from 1990 to 1998. Eventually, the administration agreed that a Pep Band would require less financial support and decided to officially change the Marching Band to a non-marching Pep Band that performed from the stands.Rexroth, Laura: Interview. 8 Jan 2012.
1996–present In the fall of 1996,W&M Digital Archive, information about and pictures of the pep band. the history of the William & Mary Pep Band began. It began as a similar institution to the Marching Band, in that it was a one credit class run by the Department of Music. Then, in the fall of 1998, the Athletic department took over the management of the Pep Band.
Under the leadership of Jason Maga, the Pep Band sat down with Athletics, the Student Government, and the Administration to work out a new direction for the Pep Band. With the support of these groups, the Pep Band started a flyering and mailing drive across campus and to all incoming freshmen. In the Fall of 1999, the Pep Band was reformed as fully student-run organization, under the Directorship of Jason Maga.
In 2024, the band adopted its motto of "Chaos, Community, Tune." This motto resulted unintentionally, as these three words were the band's keywords for shape formation in the script of their halftime show on October 19, 2024. The show was created and conducted by Show Manager Ryan Lindley. Believing these words to be the perfect encapsulation of the pep band spirit, the band began to recite them at the end of each rehearsal and performance following the 2024 homecoming game.
Former directors
Year Name Year Name 1999 Jason Maga 2000 Doug Bunch 2001 Doug Bunch 2002 Carrilynn Greenwood 2003 Diana West 2004 Rebecca Nelson 2005 Andy Kramer 2006 Alex Mills 2007 Kenny Barry 2008 Dustin Glasner 2009 Christina Millson 2010 Christina Millson 2011 Kevin Deisz 2012 Kevin Deisz 2013 Carrie Sheeler 2014 Megan Flansburg 2015 Cody Jones 2016 Matthew McGuinness 2017 Dylan Schuler 2018 Megan Rouch 2019 Davidson Norris 2020 Brendan Switts 2021 Tate Stevens 2022 Wilhelmina Awan 2023 Natalie Bavos-Chen 2024 Allison Thorne 2025Ethan Shoham 2026 Joey Calisti
Former Drum Captains Year Name(s) 2023 Charlotte West 2024 Charlotte West 2025 Josh Seagreaves & Ryan Lindley 2026 Josh Seagreaves
Awards The Charlotte West Percussionist of the Year Award This award is granted to the most outstanding member of the Tribe Line each year. It is named after the first Drum Captain and first recipient of the award, Charlotte West ('25). Year Winner 2024 Charlotte West 2025 Ryan Lindley
References
External links William and Mary Pep Band 19 February 2011 Tribe basketball game against Radford University 29 September 2007 Tribe football game against Towson University 18 November 2006 Tribe football game against University of Richmond Flat Hat Article on the pep band, August 2005