Patrick Stanton is already a big man on campus, although it’s only the first day of his first year at the University of Washington. The Lake Stevens High School graduate plays trombone in the Husky Marching Band.
Before attending a single UW class, the 18-year-old played and marched at two Husky home games. Wowing a crowd of 70,000 is one way to beat the college-freshman jitters.
On Saturday, Stanton was on the field with the 240-member band as a brassy version of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” greeted fans arriving for the UW’s Pac-12 opener against the California Golden Bears. The Cal team beat the Huskies 30-24, but those Dawgs never lose the band’s rousing support.
Whether it’s unfurling a massive American flag before games, playing the fight song “Bow Down to Washington,” or launching into “Louie Louie,” the band livens up a stadium that touts itself on an electronic reader board as “the greatest setting in college football.”
Stanton is proud to be part of the band’s 86-year tradition. “I’ve been watching and listening to the Husky Marching Band since I was a baby,” said Stanton, a physics major who just moved into McMahon Hall on campus.
Terri Stanton, a teacher at Arlington’s Haller Middle School and a UW graduate, is glad her son is starting college with a group to call his own. At a huge university, that matters. More than 44,000 students attend UW’s Seattle campus, and Patrick Stanton is part of a freshman class of about 6,800.
“Sending him off to college feels so much better knowing that he’s already found 239 kindred spirits in the Husky Marching Band,” Terri Stanton said. “So much of the Husky Marching Band is based in tradition, and it’s been surreal to watch him learn and play many of the same songs from my days at UW.”
The Stantons are a Pac-12 family, but they’re not all Huskies. Patrick’s dad, Robb Stanton, is a UCLA alumnus. “The UW was always my first choice,” Patrick said.
He started playing trombone in seventh grade at Immaculate Conception &Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Everett, and played at Cavelero Mid High School before moving on to Lake Stevens High School. Like the Huskies, the Lake Stevens Vikings sport purple and gold, but Stanton’s high school band is what he called “a stand band.”
“We marched one show, homecoming. I did a little bit of marching at camps, but nothing like UW,” he said. His experience with the Husky band began before leaving high school.
Husky band Director Brad McDavid said the UW invites high school band members to its annual Junior-Senior Day, which coincides with the Husky spring football game. “They get to see what game day is like,” McDavid said. “We’re helping to plant the seed.”
Then come the hard parts — auditions and practice.
Returning Husky band members and alumni played at the first home game Sept. 12. “Immediately following that game were freshman auditions, followed by a week of pretty grueling camp,” McDavid said.
For tryouts, potential members play music for McDavid and band section leaders, and also perform a brief marching audition. Once accepted, rookie band members practiced daily for a week, 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., before playing for the first time at the Sept. 19 game against Utah State.
“We have a lot to teach them,” McDavid said. “The rookies come from large schools and small schools, big bands and tiny bands. We have five days to make them look like us. It’s always pretty special the first time they march onto the field. They understand why we work them so hard.”
Along with their studies, Husky band members attend two-hour practices four nights a week. They heed to a traditional, physically tough high-step style of marching. On game days, they arrive at the stadium at least four hours before kickoff. “We’re the first ones at the stadium and the last ones to leave,” McDavid said.
Smaller groups from the band travel to most away games, McDavid said. The full band will be in Vancouver, British Columbia, Saturday for a halftime show at a BC Lions football game.
Stanton said his band uniform has 10 pieces, including the big shako hat with the plume. Along with playing and marching, there’s some goofy dancing involved. “It doesn’t look stupid if everybody’s doing it,” he quipped.
During halftime Saturday, the band recreated a performance from the 1985 Orange Bowl. At the end of the game, as throngs headed for the exits, the band took the field again for its postgame show, a Husky tradition. Band members let out a cheer loud enough to reach the 300-level when McDavid announced “we don’t have rehearsal tomorrow.”
Already, Stanton has a favorite song. “Bow Down to Washington” turned 100 this year, but the trombone player from Lake Stevens gets the biggest kick out of playing the 1950s classic “Tequila.”
And after 22 years as band director, McDavid said “Tequila” never gets old. “It’s usually associated with a touchdown, so I never get tired of it,” he said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
