1997 Miracle Yearbook

The pulse of Cedarville's basketball gamesis the pep-band.Cedarville's pep- band was started in 1979 by Professor MichaelDiCuirci."DonCallan,then head coach, approached me and asked me to consider organizing and directing a per- manentpep-bandfor men's varsity home games," DiCuirci said. "I was new and enthusiastic and eager.I wanted to do it. I didn't realize that it would catch on so strongly. It is now a Cedarville institu- tion." Thepepband hasbeen presentatevery homegamefor19years.Theyplay music if there isa pause on the court or in- between periods.Pep-band also addslife to the game by starting cheers and strik- ing up a beat thatfans can stamp or clap to. The Spirit of Cedarville Pep Band DiCuircitriestokeepthe musiclibrary current but he also has a few songs that nevergetold."Songslike WipeOut,You Can CallMeAl,and HangOnSloopy are staples but weadd four to five new tunes every year." Pep-band is a time for college stu- dents,faculty,staff,andafew high-school students who enjoy playing instruments to playin alessformalatmosphere."Pep- band is a total fun group that plays tune arrangementsand existsforone purpose: toinjectlife and spiritintothegames.We play well,but are not under the same set of rules as the concert ensembles," said DiCuirci. There are 140 people listed as part of the pep-band, but there are usually only 90 at an average game. Unlike all the other musicalinstrumentgroupsoncam- pus pep-band does not hold auditions. Anyone interestedjust needs to show up to the first practices. Ironically the pep- band has a larger audience."We play to more people in a season than all of our concert groups do in five years. Three thousand people a game times 15 home gamesisquiteanaudience,"saidDiCuici. Stephen Simons 238 atfitetics