The Thundering Herd Marching Band is the largest and loudest spirit organization on campus. Every week they aim to promote the spirit of collegiate athletics and entertain the crowd while supporting Harding\u2019s teams.<\/p>\n
Wesley Parker, director of the Thundering Herd, said the band started their preparation for the season on Aug. 14 with a week of band camp reviewing marching fundamentals, learning drum major commands, rehearsing music and blocking field formations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that this year will be a very special one,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 31, the first half-time show, \u2018Show of Champions\u2019 was featured during the first football game, acknowledging the Athletic Department\u2019s previous season of triumph and hope for another successful year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a band, we wanted to collaborate with the Athletic Department on congratulating our sports teams on such a monumental 2016-2017 season,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
There was a lot of excitement for that first game, sophomore Emma Erwin a tuba player in the Thundering Herd, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually cried the first time I took the field at First Security Stadium this year,\u201d Erwin said. \u201cI was overwhelmed by positive emotions witnessing the amount of joy and excitement that was coming from the stands.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Parker, this energy is one that is mirrored in the band itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love watching our band perform, seeing them smile and have fun playing music, and I want everyone else to see it too,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
Parker and Erwin said the Thundering Herd is a close-knit group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all one big family and God is the center of our family,\u201d sophomore bass drummer, Lew Knapp said. \u201cEveryone is accepted for who they are, regardless of their faith, color or looks, and we all come together in harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Parker the band is more than just a group of performers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big family get together each time we rehearse or perform,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThey genuinely care for each other, celebrate with each other\u2019s successes and help each other in times of need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erwin said this support is part of what makes the Thundering Herd so unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompared to my high school, the herd spends a lot more time growing together emotionally and spiritually,\u201d Erwin said. \u201cI have made the best friends I\u2019ve ever had through this program, and I often joke that all my bridesmaids will be in band uniforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Thundering Herd is making strides to strengthen this dynamic through community outreach and inviting past generations of band members to return this season. On Saturday, Sept. 16, the band will be hosting high school students from a variety of local high schools during the halftime show.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will join us on the field as we create a \u2018mass band\u2019 at First Security Stadium,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
Later in the season, for the Homecoming game, Parker is working to put together one of the largest alumni bands in Harding\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of momentum from that group and I am looking forward to seeing some great former students and band members join us on that field,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
The band performs at all home football games, in addition to parades and other events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Thundering Herd Marching Band is the largest and loudest spirit organization on campus. Every week they aim to promote the spirit of collegiate athletics and entertain the crowd while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15074,"featured_media":9001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9003,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000\/revisions\/9003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}