Rockin' Out

TAMPA - They have more than happy cows in California.

Stanford's band, the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band, is anything but ordinary.

The band took home the championship basketball Sunday after winning the Battle of the Final Four Bands competition at Hoop City, a three-day interactive fan festival, inside the Tampa Convention Center.

Stanford stood out from the moment the marching bands from Louisiana State, Connecticut and Tennessee filed into position in their respective corners of center court.

Although the other bands arrived in matching outfits - khakis or dress slacks with polo shirts or pullover jackets in school colors - Stanford had its own, um, uniform. And the only thing matching were the red vests.

Band members wore jeans, T-shirts, mini-skirts and even flip-flops. They donned fishing hats covered in buttons and other memorabilia. Don't forget the sunglasses, or the Tree, the band's mascot who was unable to attend because he was visiting veterans with the Husky from UConn.

"I think the tree is great. It's not really much of anything. It's what you want to make of it," Patrick Fortune, a junior international relations major, said in a phone interview. He has been underneath the tree suit since March. "We get out there, rock out and have a great time. We stand against the status quo."

The battle was three rounds, including performing the school fight song and one band choice. The audience picked the winner.

Known for its "scatter-style" performances, the Stanford marching band doesn't really march. Instead, it dances, jumps and spins in circles, something it has done for decades. The crowd, even those wearing other school colors, ferociously cheered for Stanford, making its win unanimous.

Its not all antics; these kids can actually rock out.

Despite all the mayhem and a full sprint by the French horn players into the packed stands, they played on tempo and in key, with most members barely breaking a sweat.

"They're wild and crazy," said Jerriann Meyer, a Stanford season-ticket holder who traveled to Tampa from Mountain View, Calif., for the Final Four. "They show you can have intense academics and still have fun."

Their set list featured "All Right Now" by Free, "Give Up the Funk" by Parliament and "Living in the U.S.A." by the Steve Miller Band.

Band manager Liz Schackmann, who conducts the band, led the crew in style. Holding a large red conductor's stick with a sparkly Stanford "S" on top, she kicked and flailed her arms to the beat, occasionally sticking out her tongue like the Michael Jordan of college bands.

"Laughing at ourselves is what we do best," said Schackmann, a senior biological sciences major. "People know how to have a good time at this school. Reaching the Final Four is the band's dream."

Reporter Sarah Hoye can be

reached at (813) 259-7832