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Madison - In the frenzy of Big Ten sports, the University of Wisconsin Marching Band rarely gets top billing.
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Instead, it sets the soundtrack as football-field gladiators clobber one another. It punctuates thunderstorms of three-point baskets. It encourages the grandstand when hope is all but lost.
Though it does get a star turn at halftime and again at the end of the game, band members are unlikely to make cameos on "SportsCenter." But they don't need the spotlight's affirmation; they're already confident they are the best.
"We're the hardest-working, most entertaining band in the country," said Michael Lorenz, assistant director and percussion coordinator. As another college football season heats up, the band is working to maintain that reputation.
Registration, or Reg Week, began Aug. 22 with drum major tryouts and marked the official opening of the band's season. Reg Week came nearly two weeks before the start of classes and, more important, ended only one week before the first game against the University of Central Florida.
For returning members the week was a high-impact refresher course - a chance to unpack old notes and steps and to quickly get in shape.
The days started early and ran late, rounded out with three different practices. By the fourth day, the marchers had worn deep, parallel grooves across their field at Observatory Drive and Walnut St.
"There are some drills that are kind of vicious," director Michael Leckrone said. "But we survive."
The veterans were prepared, arriving with knees, ankles and wrists wrapped and braced. But there were still grimaces and a few tears. They slathered sunscreen on one another, but faces still turned a red bright enough to match the uniforms. And sunscreen could not stop the dark fingers of sweat that snaked through bandannas and soaked T-shirts.
They will argue the intensity of their practices rivals that of any other sport.
"Nothing can prepare you for band practice," said Michelle Barber, a junior clarinetist from Bloomington, Minn. "You can't just go out and run miles. It's good that we're doing this, though. If not we'd probably just be drinking."
If the week is daunting for veterans, it can be overwhelming for the freshmen. In addition to the heat, the long hours and the new music, there is the added pressure of trying to win a spot on the team.
Leckrone limits the band to about 280 people, although there is no magic number. Regardless, a handful of freshmen will not take the field this year.
"Ultimately, we're looking at the coordination they have marching," said Leckrone, who has directed the band for 36 years. "Are they putting the foot in the right place? We decide if they'll eventually get it."
Marching band members have the same pedigree as all successful athletes: a natural talent mixed with a willingness to work hard. But unlike many other sports, a band member must exhibit a graceful athleticism while simultaneously playing a musical instrument.
"I'm tired enough just holding (my trumpet) up all day," said Peter DeMaio, a freshman from Hudson. "It's a lot of work."
The UW band is renowned for its crisp, clean marching style and a trademark move: the Big Ten Step, according to Daniel Rothenbueler, a senior trumpeter from Dodgeville.
It's a complicated undertaking. Each step should end with the player on the ball of one foot. The other leg, which is in the air, should be high and straight, a perfect line from knee to toenail.
"It's like you're trying to push your heel through your shoelaces," Leckrone said.
What makes the move unique, however, is a slight hesitation, or stutter, at the top of each step. Leckrone made sure band members got the hesitation right, running the step over and over, like skipping back to the same track on an album.
"We're going to run (the freshmen) into the ground," said John Taylor, a junior fluegelhorn player from Bayside. "It's what makes us so good."
By the time they moved on to the next song, the band was nearly uniform. Rows of legs went up, hesitated and then fell in lockstep. After less than a week of practice, the new members were starting to merge with the veterans.
Being the band's director is equal parts drill sergeant and virtuoso.
While band members struggled with three daily practices during Reg Week, Leckrone's 16-hour days also included arranging and choreographing the band's marches.
"This is the grungy stuff," he said. "It makes the regular rehearsals seem like vacation."
His practices are neat and orderly. He runs them from the field, pacing through the ranks of marchers with a microphone headset hanging on his ear. From the sideline he is only a faded red baseball cap in a sea of brass instruments.
The current crop of band members clearly respects him and takes the practices seriously. When a player makes a marching or musical mistake, he or she is expected to do a round of push-ups.
"It's a self-imposed punishment for not being involved or focused," Lorenz said.
No one enforces the policy, but it is a matter of pride for the members, and nearly all of them do at least one set each day. Leckrone has spent two generations developing that devotion.
Leckrone had wanted to direct a Big Ten band because "I always believed (the conference) was the top of the line," he said. But when he arrived in 1969 from his previous job at Butler University in Indianapolis, the popularity of the Badgers' band was waning. Leckrone speculates that people were turned off by the regimentation at a time when the military was largely unpopular.
He worked to develop a better reputation with the campus and Wisconsin's sports fans, introducing the celebrated "Fifth Quarter" - the post-game show - that earned UW a national reputation. And he continued the Tuba March, in which tuba players march around the sidelines before the fourth quarter, playing traditional favorites, such as "On, Wisconsin" and the "Beer Barrel Polka."
He also started an annual Spring Concert, which now runs three nights. Once a year, starting in 1975, fans have not had to sit through a sluggish sporting event to hear their favorite fight songs.
Occasionally freshmen will tell Leckrone they came to UW specifically to be in the band.
"I think they're just trying to butter me up," he said, though he does "hope that it attracts some people."
Dan Duffy is the director of bands at Waukesha West High School. Several of his former students fill the ranks of UW's band. Although the majority chose UW for academics, he said, being in the band offers them a more complete college experience. Band members have a ready source of friends, they get to travel and they are performing in front of thousands of supportive fans.
"It's an outstanding opportunity for college students," he said.
It can cost some money to be in the band: $40 for a sweater and a deposit fee for the uniform. Sousaphone players also have to purchase a beret. But few of the members considered the cost, tending to agree with Duffy that the experience is worth it.
Megan Carew, a clarinetist from Green Lake, met some of her best friends through the band.
"When you spend most of the time with a group of people, you have the same attitude," she said.
They also share the same schedule, with practice every weekday afternoon from 3:30 to 5:15, except Monday on game weeks.
"You have to learn how to balance schoolwork and the band," Carew said.
Game days and road trips steal even more time, although Liz Rasmussen of New Richmond, the band's drum major, said playing at away games is usually the highlight of the season.
"I've gotten to go to so many cool places," she said, including a trip to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio two seasons ago.
This year the band is not scheduled for any football road trips; Leckrone said it was not invited by any other schools to play. Several band members said other bands were just worried they would be shown up on their home fields.
"We're just hoping the Badgers get into a bowl," Rasmussen said, "so we can go somewhere."
Past band members have had a hard time calling it quits. Duane Steinhauer last played in the band in 1969. But he still tries to stop by as many practices as possible. He has a friend who owns a dairy farm, so he arranges to have milk delivered for the team occasionally. He even schedules his vacation to coincide with the band's Spring Concert.
This kind of dedication is not unusual, Leckrone said. Members "really develop a pride in what they're doing. A pride in the band."
Most of the seniors said they will return after they graduate to march in Alumni Band Day. And Steinhauer said the experience doesn't change as an alumni.
"Your first time marching on the field, it was like you're marching six feet in the air," he said. "It's the same feeling every time."
