Written by Lauren Bixler
Give me an F!
Give me an O!
Give me an O!
Give me a T!
Give me a B!
Give me an A!
Give me an L!
Give me an L!
That is one of the many cheers led by the Hillsdale College Pep Band that you may hear if you sit in the student section at a home football game.
Just like the athletes, the pep band has a significant role in shaping the atmosphere of home football games at Frank “Muddy” Waters Stadium.
Offensive lineman Ryan Strasser, ’25, said he has “always loved having the pep band there at the games,” and “it creates that college football game-day atmosphere.”
Heather Juskiewicz, ’26, who serves as the pep band’s student director, echoed Ryan’s point from the pep band side. “On one hand, the easy thing to do would be to not have the pep band, because then you can turn music on and off with the push of a button,” she said. “But I just find it a little soulless, because part of what makes the pep band so fun is that it is student-led.”
Aside from the musical component, Grace Torsch, ’29, said the pep band creates a structure for the crowd’s dynamic. “The pep band pulls the student section back together, and it also encourages people who might not have been interested initially in watching the football game to show up because they get to watch the pep band perform as well.”
What the pep band creates is atmosphere, but that is not an easy feat. Many components come together to make game day what it is.
First, the pep band meets at the Howard Music Building an hour before the coin toss to transport all manner of drum sets, trumpets, trombones, alto saxes, bass guitars, electric guitars, cymbals, and cowbells to the stadium.
After passing through security, the pep band sets itself up in the student section, and instead of warming up muscles, they warm up their instruments alongside the football players.
Then, close to the start of the game, Heather receives the game-day script from Game Day Experience Manager Tiffany Treppa—a lifesaver for the craziness of the game. Heather said, “Everything the announcer is going to say, when other athletes come to throw footballs to the crowd—all of that is scripted and pre-planned, sometimes down to the minute, based on the clock.”
This script, alongside her earpiece, helps Heather stay in tune with the administrative side of the game. Even though the pep band reports to the Music Department, it still acts as an arm of the Athletic Department on game day. Every moment, Heather is interpreting the game, finding slots where the pep band can play alongside what’s laid out in the script. Ultimately, she’s “trying not to step on any toes and incur fines, because if the pep band plays when the ball is in play, the team may get a penalty, and the College may get a fine.” So the pep band has a lot of pressure to follow the Division II guidelines.
But despite that pressure, the music is nothing but fun, and it’s crafted to match the flow of the game. “I try to save the slower songs for the beginning, when it’s not quite as heated,” Heather said. “So that would be songs like “Mambo No. 5” or “Tequila,” which are fun and get the crowd involved, but they’re not as fast, like “Fireball” and “Light Them Up.” So I like to use those fast songs toward the end of the second half where there’s a lot of time-outs.”
The intentionality of the music has an impact on the football players as well as the crowd. As a player, Ryan said the pep band makes a noticeable difference, with football being such a momentum-heavy game. “When we score and then you hear the music coming from the pep band, that stuff really helps,” he added. “It uplifts us and maintains our momentum for the game.”
In addition to the musical craftiness of the pep band on game day, they also deliver pep through their attire and other sorts of tomfoolery.
Heather said she encourages the pep band to dress in theme with whatever the Athletic Department determines for each game. This year, the Homecoming theme was “Space,” so Heather donned a Jedi robe and lightsaber.
Grace, who could be seen at this season’s Parents Weekend game in a tutu with red, white, and blue pipe cleaners on her trombone, said she tries to go “all out” for games. After the rigidness of high school marching band uniforms, she told herself that college is a time to “go crazy.” She even foraged through the sale section of Party City, claiming to have “bought everything that was on sale.” But really, she said, “I’m just trying to get the most use out of my tutu that I possibly can, and we’re saving the confetti cannon for the appropriate occasion.”
Once the game is over, the pep band reverses its pre-game ritual. They pack up, return the instruments to the music building, and resume their Saturday homework, whether that be biochemistry, rhetoric and media, philosophy, or applied math. As with many organizations on campus, you will find a group of people who, without their shared passion, may never be seen in the same room together. But that condition is what makes the pep band so special. “What I’ve loved most about the pep band is the personalities of the people who make it so fun,” Heather said.
Lauren Bixler, ’27, is studying politics and journalism. A California native, but honorary Midwesterner, she’s incredibly grateful for every day at Hillsdale College. In her free time, you may find her crunching her feet in the winter snow, baking brown butter cookies, or grabbing a coffee with a friend at Penny’s.
Published in December 2025
