Shiny instruments and crisp uniforms create a vision that the halftime marching band knows exactly what they’re doing. They know their music, and they know their dots but which ones think they’re playing a sport or not?

Band is a tight-knit group that most people are fairly confused about. Endless inside jokes that just over 165 students understand, depending on if the joke stays within the band community. However, there is one thing that stirs confusion even within a band every year. As field show ends and the spirit rock painted, the endless debate on whether marching band is a sport or not is rising once again.

Drum majors senior Jason Parshall and junior Gabe Weisenburger led the Marching Bears to three Saturday competitions and helped Tahoma win many awards. Their hard work throughout the season awarded them with Best Drum Major at the Auburn Veterans’ Day Marching Band Competition.

Even if the 2018 season was one of the best in recent years, the question of is marching band a sport still stands. Google and Oxford Dictionary defines sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”

Arguments for marching band being a sport are it is a physical activity with two 2 or 3-hour practices weekly, the band competes against other schools, and has a distinct season. Freshman Rory Roberts says, “It takes a lot of air to play while marching, especially when running.” Marching band also takes teamwork as well as individual contribution. Finally, it contributes to mental exercises such as excessive repetition and memorization.

Some say marching band is not a sport because there is not much athleticism to it and it does not do much for your body physically. An anonymous interviewee said, “If you call marching band a sport, then you’re calling anything that requires talent a sport.” Ethan Andrew, the brass captain for the 2018 field show season says it is not a sport and compares it to the football program which he attended his freshman year and that the level of exertion was a lot higher than what marching band requires.

This argument may never be settled but it will live on, with new reasons introduced on both sides of the debate. For now, the shiny instruments and crisp uniforms will be put away after another great field show season.