Anyone reading this blog knows what G-Day is. It's a welcome relief from the football drought. In the spring, the football team holds a scrimmage (red vs. black) that's open to the public. Besides the free admission, fans come to Athens on G-Day in order to tailgate (an excuse to drink in the middle of the day while eating junk food), and check out the players who will be wearing the silver britches in the coming fall. And for a price (unknown to me), fans can walk on the field, throw around a football, meet Uga (or Russ, this year), get their footballs/jerseys/whatever signed, and generally bask in the glory that is the UGA football tradition.
This is where the first perk of being in Redcoats comes to light: I've been on that field more times than I can count. I've thrown a football on it, petted Uga, and stood in front of nearly 93,000 of my closest friends (most of them drunk, all of them screaming). . . for free.
Back to G-Day. Although the day is sandwiched between those infamous Redcoat parties (more on those later), it's mostly work. It's preparation for the upcoming season, not just for the football team, but for us as well. Yesterday, we showed up to Sanford Stadium at about 8:00 in the morning (some a couple hours earlier) for the traditional Redcoat Chick-Fil-A breakfast. We get Sunny D with our chicken biscuits. It's the only time I ever drink Sunny D. I associate Sunny D with mornings in Redcoats. . . it's actually something I look forward to.
After breakfast, it's time to work. You know those crazy kids in the black uniforms that conduct us? They're called drum majors, and they're put through a really intense audition process. It's very important to have drum majors who have good leadership skills, can conduct well, and know the game of football well enough to know when to call up certain songs. You've probably never thought about it before, but we play specific tunes depending on whether we're on offense or defense, what down it is, and what happened on the previous play. Drum majors have to know all of this. After going through multiple rounds of auditions, which include interviews, conducting prepared pieces, calling up tempos, and rehearsing a small group of Redcoats, the number of potential drum majors is narrowed down to 8 people. G-Day is the final round of auditions, where the final 4 drum majors are decided upon by the directors, after their performances have been evaluated and the band members have cast their votes. Needless to say, it's a nerve-wracking (if you're trying out for drum major), and important day. Each candidate must rehearse the band by providing constructive criticism and directing us through show pieces from the previous year. This takes quite a while. Afterwards, we run through all of our music, just to make sure that everything sounds okay. This year, practice went relatively smoothly, even though they were playing SportsCenter on the jumbotron, which made it a little tough to focus.
Then, it was lunch time. I like lunch time, as long as the lunch is good. This year, our lunches were from Panera Bread, and they were quite tasty. The cookie that I got with my turkey sandwich was amazing. Some people took the half hour that we spent after lunch to arm wrestle one another (this is a tradition), some chatted, and others (like myself) took a nap.
After lunch, we played a pep rally at the Student-Alumni Association tailgate, and then marched into the stadium. G-Day is the first time in a long time that we've all said the Redcoat Chant together as a group (because we only do it at games), and it was exciting to say it again! Then, the game started. The game is also a part of drum major auditions. Prospective drum majors always take turns calling up songs in the stands. The game itself is always interesting, because we get to see some plays for the coming fall, but it was especially interesting to see Grantham's 3-4 scheme. I'm looking forward to see how it fares against other teams come August.
I was exhausted by the end of the game, my eyes were killing me because I was tired and pollen hates me, and I think I was a little too sarcastic with my parents. I don't usually talk like that to them, and I still feel bad about it. Later, I compared sunburns with my friends. Mine was pretty good. I'm kind of proud. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to fall asleep last night.
Well, this is sufficiently long, and I still have to send my picks for drum major. So, I'll leave you with this thought. For you, G-Day is a lot of fun in the sun, and for us, it's work. But we do it because we want to have a successful and fun season in the fall. I think that, although yesterday had its tough moments, it was good. I think that we'll have a good ensemble next season, and I'm ready to get out there one more time. I hope y'all are as excited as I am!
My favorite G-Day moment: popsicles!
I'll be back at the start of the fall semester to tell you what band camp is like, and how it's going! Go ahead and start with the American Pie jokes. I know you want to. It's everyone's favorite thing to quote to me. ;)
