A game-time factor, on and off the court: UTRGV Pep Band’s undeniable impact on games

Entering any UTRGV game, the 70-strong Pep Band’s energetic music, cheering and chanting is the first thing fans encounter, an energy that has built a reputation around the conference and gives the Vaqueros a real home-court advantage. 

 Chasse Conque, UTRGV vice president and director of Athletics, told The Rider that the student athletes and fans love and feed off what the Pep Band brings to the game day and are a big part of the entire athletics experience. 

“Our Pep Band’s got a reputation throughout the conference,” Conque said. “And they know when you come to the Rio Grande Valley to play and compete against the Vaqueros. The band is going to be a factor and we see that time and time again.”

Conque said there have been many times when games are close down the stretch and the team needs just one more stop or point, and the Pep Band certainly helps the team by bringing all the energy it can. 

“When an opposing team comes to our fieldhouse, if you beat us, it’s not gonna be easy,” Saul Torres, a lecturer and director of the Pep Band and the Wind Ensemble, told The Rider. “We’re not going to make it easy for you to beat us. That’s how I see it.”

The band plays at most of the home games for UTRGV when they are not busy with its own concerts or competitions, from basketball to volleyball. This year, the drumline component played at home soccer games at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex. 

The Pep Band also has performed at Roundup, Homecoming activities, the Week of Welcome flag parade and many more university events. 

Not only do they provide musical entertainment from their catalog of about 30 songs that feature Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” but they also keep the energy up for the fieldhouse through chanting, cheering and being loud.

“There are games that when we play, you know that … the band made the difference,” Torres said. “The band pumped up the players. That helped them get that W.” 

The Pep Band is made of a band component, featuring instruments such as the clarinet, trumpet, piccolo, and a drumline component. The band is comprised of about 70 students, according to Torres, with the majority of them being music majors, but is open to non-music majors. 

“It’s not a class,” he said. “The kids don’t get graded. … The kids you have seen at a basketball game or a volleyball game, they’re there because they want to be there.” 

UTRGV volleyball freshman setter Julia Abramo Rocha told The Rider that the volleyball team is appreciative of the energy that the band brings and when they are not there, it makes a big difference in the gym for them.

“We had our first tournament here and it was the first home game that we were going to have since COVID happened,” Rocha said. “And we got into the gym … and suddenly, like, we hear the instruments and people cheering for us and we look up and all the band is there and we were all super hyped because we never saw them before since we’re pretty much all new to the team.” 

The Pep Band keeps the energy up by chanting, supporting the team, cheering after a major point but also heckling the opposing team and trying to get under their skin, according to Torres. 

Among the tactics they use are shouting “Air ball!” when a player misses and their favorite thing to do, taking out their keys and dangling them at the opposing team and shouting, “Start the bus!” signaling that the opponent has already lost.

One of Rocha’s favorite things that the band does to opposing players is performing as loudly as it can before a player serves the ball, which she noticed makes the player hit a bad serve. 

“Also pretty much all the timeouts,” the native of Brazil said. “They, like, bring so much good energy up when they start playing their instruments and they even, like, cheer us up even though we’re losing. They’re always there for us. It doesn’t matter the score. They’re always, like, playing and I think that’s so nice.” 

Torres said they do this knowing that once you get into teams, or certain player’s head, it will be difficult for them to regain their composure and beat UTRGV. 

Conque said the intimacy of the UTRGV Fieldhouse with the fans, students and band makes it feel like everyone is really on top of the court. 

“Then you throw in a timeout where our band is playing at a high level,” Conque said “It certainly impacts that team huddle, and it gets so loud in the fieldhouse, at times it’s hard to concentrate.”

Another tactic that is utilized by the Pep Band is called “more tuba” in which the tuba players will go down next to the opponents during a timeout and play as loud as they can, a factor that is acknowledged by the other teams, Conque said. 

“They will play loud so the opposing team’s coach has a hard time communicating with the players,” Torres said. “We’ve had instances … where the opposing team will move further away or they’ll just go outside. They don’t even want to deal with us. And when they do that, you know that you’re making it difficult [for them].” 

One of the biggest compliments that the Pep Band receives is when the opposing coach comes up to Torres and tells him that the band was awesome all night and made a difference in the game. 

With the Pep Band traveling with the men’s and women’s basketball teams to Las Vegas for the Western Athletic Conference Tournament on March 8, along with the rest of the spirit squad, Conque said it really made a difference. 

“The atmosphere that we just created for our women’s game, night and day compared to the opponent we just played,” Conque said after the Vaqueras beat Seattle University 71-61 March 8. “UTRGV dominated that arena. And we had a few fans there. But we also had an unbelievable showing from our spirit squads and our Pep Band. And then right after the game, immediately, our young ladies, they go over there, thank our fans, and they go thank our spirit squads and our Pep Band.” 

With the Vaqueras beating Abilene Christian University 73-70 March 9 in a last-second nail-biter, Torres said he thinks since it was such a close game that the Pep Band really helped the team win by being in sync with their playing, cheering and chanting in the second round.

“They had a pretty good fan base here,” he said. “They had a bigger fan base than we did. But I’m going to tell you right now. In the arena, because of the Pep Band and the cheer and the dance [teams] and the drumline, that was like a home game for us.” 

After students passed the Athletics Fee Referendum last November, the potential of expanding the spirit program and adding a marching band has Conque and Torres excited for the future. 

“Building on the success and the notoriety that our current Pep Band has today, you go back to [UTRGV] Madness and watch our band march on the court at the [UTRGV] Fieldhouse back in October, that’s just a glimpse of what this program is going to be able to do in the coming years,” Conque said.

Torres hopes with the expansion that there will be enough members for a band in Edinburg and Brownsville, and be able to attend various events at once and attract non-music majors. 

“I think with the whole expansion with a marching band, I think it’s going to be great, not just for the School of Music, not just for the university, but I think the community,” Torres said.