recently Wy got to talk to three recent Raleigh County graduates in anticipation of joining the pride of West Virginia marching band now theyve taken the field for the first time this past weekend Newswatch Anor seren Deano brings you all to experience what game day is Through The Eyes of a rookie College band member the first time a Collegiate band member enters the stadium on game day it's a moment they will never forget but what audiences see at the stadium is only the end result of the band's work for the bands their game day starts hours before kickoff sometimes even before the sun rises the students and staff work tirelessly to clean pregame in halftime so they can put their best foot forward it was well needed I'd really like to prepare before doing anything in front of a crowd so it was a great opportunity to you know get a feel of what we were actually up for up against this game after rehearsal the band goes to eat take a moment and prepare for Step Off With Their capes and Equipment ready each section heads up to the hill to warm up before they parade as they get closer and closer to kickoff Piper Dangerfield is at a loss for words it's kind of hitting me yeah um it's Sur Real so I'm just going just letting um going with the punches this is the moment the students really get into the mindset that the game is here and they have a job to do the anticipation of 60,000 people watching is beginning to hit I'm very excited very excited but I am terribly nervous uh just to see all the crowd we've been talking so much about how how packed the stadium is but I have yet to really see that with my own eyes so to see everybody there and cheering for us and looking at us it going to be real scary going to be real scary with nerves and excitement they march on ready to bring M Pride to Milan pushker Stadium the time is now the hard work of band camp and the preparation has led to this moment the fans are ready for them and they are ready for the fans to open the show that is college football the band did the time honor tradition of pregame it was preh is my favorite I would say like um compared to our halftime routines because it's just so I mean it's set in stone it has not been touched in a while and so I would have to say my favorite song is simple G because the fact that we can do a whole little circle and you know we do like a little tap up and we have different color silks for like different numbers and it's just really intricate it's a nice moment to like after we've done um fight Mountain Mount deal it's a good moment to like breathe for a second and then run right back out the air and continue until we're done after pregame it's time to keep the spirit going by playing Tunes to keep the fans and team hyped up during the game then halftime hits It's the opportunity to give the audience a moment to D stress from the game and just enjoy where they are when they take the field it's like nothing else matters it whenever you get out there you don't think too too much about it uh you'll normally just kind of as soon as I count off one two one two you're locked in nothing else I can't see anybody else I can't I'm just going I'm and my feet are moving I don't know what I'm doing the feeling is so overwhelming that it feels like you've forgotten everything you ever learned it was amazing um I stepped on that field and I pretty sure I forgot half the notes so most of it was me I'm just like trying to get to my DOT I'm like what are my notes but I got to all my dots I was fine I remembered most of the music and then at the very end you're just sitting there like I just did a whole half T now it's time to leave the field and finish this game though in an unexpected turn of events severe weather came and the second half of the game was delayed during this delay both the pride of West Virginia and the Penn State blue band made the most of it by using this time to talk and share stories after the almost 2 and 1/ half hour delay the game continues with the team trailing behind at the start of the second half the band brought on the music to rev up the crowd while the game wasn't in WVU's favor the band will always win because they are doing what they love for a university they take so much pride in dude due to the weather delay I couldn't finish off the game with them so I caught up with them on Zoom to get final thoughts on their experience it was just it was way different than High School like they have such a different expectation of you than they do in high school and it was just a lot I'll say that I saw completely different sides of people that I had previously like gotten to meet over band camp and everything I got to see a whole new side of people where going crazy game day you know jumping up and down I've never seen some of those people be that loud but game day it brought something out in them it wasg pride we'll have to agree because the tunnel oh and I think we're all in the same tunnel too like everyone I mean they were getting in I was okay I like this you know I think that was very interesting I definitely kind of calm my nerves to some point because I'm like okay everyone's having fun before we have to do 220 out there so you know like I was like okay everything's going to be all right these people know what to I know what to do just got to get on the field and like perform while it was only the first game they still have more experiences coming their way however they want to share this to current High School band members if you get the chance to do Collegiate marching man do it I don't care if you are a business major Premed do it I'm an engineering major it's so much like the we talked about it the reward the travel the you know it's it's it's everything you know you don't have to be in going into a music field to enjoy you know the community and the activity and you know and you make so many friends like a lot of people had said that earlier and I was like no but like because usually I I think I'm a pretty I make friends often but like with B I think I always had that like okay I have people to lean back on or like I can talk to this about like um these like this group of people because they've been here before like it's it's amazing if you do band or like even any sport you'll have like friends hopefully you know automatically so you might get the chance to do something like the Macy's day parade now that game one has passed the work continues for the rest of the season in Morgantown for newsat I'm Serena Deano