No shortage of White Lake area residents drew joy from Jan. 8's Michigan win over Washington in the College Football Playoff national championship game, but Montague band alumnae Hayden O'Neal and Katie Roll got to see it unfold in person, and were even a small part of the triumph.
The two Wildcats are in the Wolverines' marching band, and both performed at the Tournament of Roses parade and the Rose Bowl Jan. 1, as well as in the title game in Houston Jan. 8.
"I just looked around and saw so many people crying tears of joy," O'Neal said. "Everyone was jumping up and down and the stadium was insane. We played 'The Victors' over and over again. It was an experience I've never had before."
O'Neal and Roll were part of the band all year, of course, but even within that group, they were special; Michigan's travel band roster for road trips, as is typical in major college football, is not the entirety of the band. Performers had to earn their spot for any road trips, including the planes to Pasadena and Houston.
"Everyone is in the stands at a home game, but they only have a certain set of people who march every week," Montague band director Emma Greenwood said. "They almost had to try out for that position, and it happens every week."
O'Neal said the process, which she said was called "challenges," took about two hours each home game Friday and was physically and mentally taxing.
O'Neal, a freshman clarinet player, marched every week of the season, which Greenwood said was an especially impressive feat given her age. O'Neal said she always intended to try to perform in the marching band, but knew because of its reputation and the jump from high school to college band in difficulty that it wouldn't be easy; she said talk among band members when season preparations began was freshmen rarely were able to march in each game. However, as it turned out, she made it look easy.
An elementary school showing of an animated adaptation of Peter and the Wolf sparked O'Neal's interest in music; she became enamored with the idea of playing the clarinet, as depicted in the film, and later pursued it in middle school and beyond.
Roll's path to the Michigan band was impressive in an entirely different way; she was a saxophone player for the Wildcat band, but when she auditioned in Ann Arbor, she was told the section was full. However, the UM band was short of tuba players, and would she like to take a stab at that?
The request was unusual for two reasons. First, there are scarcely any two instruments less like one another in terms of performing them than a saxophone and a tuba. Second, Roll, a quiet and unassuming young woman without great physical stature, would be joining the section that, Greenwood said, stereotypically contains some of the largest, most energetic and brashest players in a given band.
However, Roll was on board, and that's how she ended up doing her small part to help the Wolverines win it all.
Performing in the band, O'Neal said, is special for many reasons, but she said maybe her favorite moment was the day of her first home game last fall, when she took the field at Michigan Stadium for the first time.
"It was an amazing experience running into the Big House for pregame," O'Neal said. "It was a 'maize out' (for the first game) so everyone was wearing yellow, 110,000 people. I don't think I'll ever get another experience like that except in band. It's amazing the opportunities this can bring you."
However, a close second for her had to be performing in Pasadena.
"It was crazy to see the army of bands who were there and the floats and performers that were there," O'Neal said. "It was crazy that I got to be part of it."
It wasn't the first time Greenwood, who said "about eight to 10" former Wildcats were in college marching bands this year, had sent proteges to the Rose Bowl. When Michigan State defeated Stanford in the Rose Bowl 10 years ago, Jan. 1, 2014, a pair of her former students - Nick Verbanic, now a teacher at Whitehall, and Tracy Lawrence - performed in the Spartan marching band.
Performing in the tradition-rich Tournament of Roses Parade is a once in a lifetime opportunity, one no sane person in the performing arts would pass up. It's also, as Greenwood described it with a laugh, something akin to torture from a physical perspective.
"The reality of not just how much hard work and precision (it takes), and how many calories they burn in a day is just insane," Greenwood said. "When they went to the Rose Bowl, they marched in a five and a half mile parade. They got a box lunch and they were on the bus and had to go to the pregame and the whole game at the Rose Bowl. Talking to them about that day, it was awesome and amazing, but it was also so much."
"We prepared for it pretty well, but we couldn't have prepared for what was actually going to occur that day," O'Neal said. "Doing the pregame and halftime right after (marching in the parade) was hard, but after it was over, I felt really accomplished."
The national title game is not paired with a massive nationally televised parade, so Roll and O'Neal's schedules weren't quite as full in Houston. The Wolverines band performed in assorted pep rallies, of course, leading up to the game, as well as during the event.
As Michigan students themselves, it could be easy for O'Neal and Roll, like other band members, to get caught up in the moment for big plays and touchdowns rather than launch into the dutiful playing of the fight song. However, O'Neal said the two became inextricable to her.
"It's almost like every time we have a touchdown, we associate it with the song," O'Neal said. "We celebrate by playing the music."
In a sign that marching band season can sometimes feel like it never ends, they also performed at a victory celebration back in Ann Arbor Saturday.
It was a long, long season of playing - O'Neal said there were weeks the band spent as many as 20 hours preparing for its traditional role in a game week. However, being a part of something very few attending the school had ever seen - Michigan last won a national championship in 1997 - delivered a reward worthy of all that effort.
Even for those not fortunate enough to perform on a stage like the one O'Neal and Roll saw, though, Greenwood said being able to share the stories of her successful alums is a big deal.
"A misconception is, 'I like band in high school but I'd never be good enough, coming from Montague, to play in college,'" Greenwood said. "(I love) to be able to talk to my middle school students, or my beginners, and show them pictures of different people in college bands. You don't have to go to Michigan; you can play at Grand Valley State, or at whatever college you want. You do have the skills and ability. You just have to have the work ethic and desire to do it. It's super gratifying to see your former students doing what they love."
