Last Saturday Indiana lost to Penn State 77-73 in the Big 10 tourney semifinals but still clinched an at-large bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Hoosiers only won 12 games in 2021 but have now had back-to-back seasons of 21+ wins and claimed the school’s 2nd straight NCAA tourney bid. In addition to shining a light on the players who got the job done on the court, it is also important to recognize the spirited students who have worked just as hard on the sidelines, such as band members/cheerleaders/dancers. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Indiana band member Kal Ellison about growing up in Bloomington.
You are from Bloomington, IN: what made you choose Indiana? I am from Bloomington so I was used to being in/around the campus already. IU is a big school so it was nice to already be familiar with it before becoming a student. The main reason I chose IU though was because I wanted to join a marching band in college and out of the schools I applied to, IU had the best marching band. Through the band I have made a lot of friends and was able to make a large campus feel smaller by being in the band.
How did you 1st get into music, and what is the best part of being in the band? I first got into band in middle school. I wanted to start playing an instrument because my older sister was in band and I wanted to have that same experience. I have played a lot of different instruments since middle school and was in the marching band in high school as well as in college. The best part of being in band is getting to make music with a lot of the different people and the friends that you meet through it.
You previously were the drum major for the Marching Hundred: what is it like to be out there on the football field in front of tens of thousands of fans? During my first year as drum major I was fairly nervous about performing in front of so many people. It is a lot different than being a regular marching band member who is marching with an instrument because you are able to blend in/hide that way. As a drum major I was tossing a large stick in the air that I needed to catch and also blowing a whistle very loudly for the band and all the fans to hear. Any mistake that you make is easily noticed by those watching. However, in my second season leading the band as drum major it was a lot easier and less nerve-racking. This past season was also a lot of fun for me to perform, especially since our marching band had just gotten a twirler (Sydney Butz), which we have not had for a very long time. It was a lot of fun to perform alongside her and create routines with her.
You play the mellophone in the Big Red Basketball Band: what on earth is a mellophone, and what kind of songs does the band perform at games? A mellophone kind of looks like a fat trumpet with a wide front facing bell. It is an instrument used for marching band and pep bands as a mid-range instrument instead of a French Horn. A French Horn has a bell that faces backward and is also quite hard to play so it is not really ideal for a marching band: you want to project your sound forward and it is also more difficult to play while marching. The Big Red Basketball Band (BRBB) has about 75 different tunes that we can play. Our more notable ones that we typically play for most games (since we cannot get through all 75!) are of course our fight songs (Indiana Our Indiana, Indiana Fight) as well as “Seven Nation Army”, “Sweet Georgia Brown” (which we start every game with), “Basket Case”, “Welcome to the Jungle”, and “The William Tell Overture” (which is part out one of our timeouts, known as the greatest timeout in college basketball!). My favorite song is named after one of our directors, Dr. Eric Smedley: it is the Shakira song “Objection” but we just call it “Tango di Smedley”. The song has a mellophone feature in it that is really fun to play.
You are majoring in exercise science: why did you choose that subject? I chose exercise science because it allowed me to learn in a variety of science classes with a focus on exercise. I felt like I could go into a lot of different professions that I was interested in by choosing exercise science. I do not exactly know what I want to do for the rest of my life but I am very happy with where I am currently.
What is the post-graduation plan? I actually graduated last December so my current schedule is the short-term post-graduation plan. I am learning a lot and meeting a lot of great coaches by interning in Memorial Stadium, and my coaching continues to get better as I learn from them. It is really nice to take what I learn there and then transfer it over to my personal training job in town where I have about 20 clients at the moment at Force Fitness and Performance. I want to eventually get a job working for a college athletic department. I am not exactly sure what job specifically, which is part of why I am doing the internship to try and figure that out. I will probably need to go to grad school to become qualified for a position but I am not in a hurry to rush to grad school right now.
You also work as a personal trainer and assist in the Memorial Stadium weight room as strength and conditioning intern: have you had a chance to work with any of the players on the basketball team? I have not had the chance to work with the basketball team: I believe they have their own weight room in a different building which is not in Memorial Stadium. I have mostly been working with volleyball, softball, women’s soccer, field hockey, and some athletes from track and field. Interns are not assigned to specific teams: those just happen to be the teams that are in the gym when I am available, but they are all a lot of fun and I really enjoy being there with them.
Last Saturday your team lost to Penn State in the Big 10 tourney semifinals: what is the mood like on campus now that the NCAA tourney is here? Spring break at IU started 2 days after our game against Penn State, so there have not been any students on campus, so I cannot really speak to whether it affected the mood on campus at all.
How does your school decide who gets to go to the NCAA tourney, and what will it mean to you to see your group doing its thing in front of a national TV audience? The band takes 29 members/1 director to tournaments. There are around 145 band members in the BRBB that are split up into 2 separate bands: a women’s team band which anyone is welcome to be in, and a men’s team band which members audition to get into. These bands are entirely composed of members from that Marching Hundred members the previous fall. That is a LOT of band members to choose from for travel and the decision is based on multiple factors. Everyone shares their availability to see who can go on the trip so that it does not interfere with exams/projects/classes. They also take into account your attendance during that regular season of basketball and how many years you have been a member of the BRBB. From there our band directors will choose which members go on tournament trips.
Does the band have anything extra-special planned for Albany, and any predictions for the Hoosiers on Friday night vs. Kent State? In Albany we went to an open practice for the team. This is the first time I had been to one and the first time I have seen the band invited to one. We played some songs for them during the practice and I really hope that the team enjoyed it. It was fun being there to support the team and I hope having the band at their practice was not too distracting. Other than that, we have just been enjoying exploring Albany. As for the upcoming game against Kent State, I sure hope that our Hoosiers come out on top. I think they will win…and it would be nice to spend a few more days in Albany.