Behind the scenes as a SOTS staff member
For the past three seasons, when the Sound of the South (SOTS) took the field at halftime, I was somewhere inside the formation with a saxophone in my hands.
This season, I watched from the sideline.
As a field tech, I watched the band prepare for halftime, but for the first time, I wasn’t preparing to march onto the field with them. Instead, I had a camera in my hands.
It was strange not to be playing, but from the sideline, I could see and hear the entire band in a way I rarely could from inside the formation.
This is my fourth season with the Sound of the South. I spent my first two years marching alto saxophone and my third on tenor. For the past three years, I have worked with the SOTS Social Media Team, which I now lead.
I became a field tech this year in part because the position would give me more freedom to focus on the social media team. Field techs are undergraduate leaders who assist the directors, drum majors and graduate assistants with teaching music and drill, handling logistics and running committees.
For the first home game of the season, my game day started before I even arrived at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Around 8:15 a.m., I was already working on a SOTS Auxiliary uniform reveal video and preparing content for the SOTS social media accounts. Rehearsal began at 9:30 a.m., and I arrived at the stadium around 10 a.m.
This game was also Alumni Band Day, so the morning included rehearsing with returning SOTS members for a combined halftime performance.
Caden Walker, a junior broadcast journalism major from Prattville, Alabama, is experiencing game day from a new position this season as one of SOTS’ drum majors.
“I look forward to game day because all the work has been done during rehearsal,” Walker said. “This is the time that I get to show off and have fun.”
The afternoon moved quickly through the Medallion Ceremony, sectionals, Concert on the Quad and Tailgate Terrace. Between events, I worked on content for the SOTS social media accounts.
Somewhere between all of that and kickoff comes one of my favorite parts of game day.
We get our food, typically Chick-fil-A, and my friends and I find the same set of stairs where we have sat since I first joined the band.
There isn’t anything particularly special about the stairs themselves. We eat, gossip, catch up and enjoy each other’s company. After spending much of the day moving around, it is one of the few times we can sit down and relax before the game.
Alex Jensen, a junior electrical and electronics engineering major from Clearwater, Florida, said the tradition has become something he looks forward to on game days.
“I always look forward to sitting down on that same set of stairs,” Jensen said. “It’s kind of like a sense of home and a sense of grounding.”
Eventually, though, someone has to get up.
As kickoff gets closer, the graduate assistants and field techs head to the field to set up for pregame. During the game, I stay on the sideline with the staff, helping where needed and taking photos.
Jensen also photographs SOTS while marching tenor saxophone.
“I love capturing the moments that I get to live with my friends,” Jensen said.
He looks for the focus of individual musicians, the movement of the auxiliaries and the interactions between friends in the stands to capture the energy of being in SOTS.
Then halftime gets closer.
The band lines up along the sideline and waits for the game clock to reach zero. People talk about the game, joke with each other, dance to the music playing in the stadium and get hyped for halftime.
For three years, I was part of that line waiting to take the field.
This time, I was watching it from the front sideline.
Before the halftime performance, the stadium played a video I made celebrating Dr. Walker’s 25th season at Troy.
Then, SOTS took the field.
The band was joined by SOTS alumni for a combined performance. From the sideline, I could hear how all the individual parts we had worked on in rehearsal came together.
When you’re standing within the ensemble, it can be difficult to hear. There are times when I miss having a saxophone in my hands, but standing on the sideline that night, I mostly felt proud of the progress the band had made since the beginning of camp.
After halftime, I spent the rest of the game taking photos and helping where I needed.
The night also gave us something every band member enjoys: a Troy win.
After the game, the football team came over to greet the band as we played the fight song, “Trojans, One and All.” But even when the football game is over, SOTS game day isn’t quite finished.
We head back onto the field for our postgame, or “Fifth Quarter,” performance, ending the night with Troy’s Alma Mater and the SOTS Fanfare.
Then comes the less glamorous part of the day: cleaning everything up.
I left the band office around 11 p.m., nearly 15 hours after I had started working on the auxiliary video that morning.
Walker had a similar assessment after finishing his first game day as a drum major. He said he was proud of the football team and the band and was excited about the performances to come.
He was also “very, very tired and sore.”
I could relate.
Running the social media team means that game day doesn’t completely end when I leave the stadium.
Between my own camera and the photos sent to me by other SOTS photographers, I may have around 800 to 1,200 photos to sort through after a game. I normally work through them over the next few days instead of trying to finish everything that night.
Sometimes, I just go to bed.
Still, going through them is one of my favorite parts of the job. I get to see how the moments I noticed through my camera turned out and find moments I didn’t have time to fully appreciate while everything was happening.
For most of my time in SOTS, I experienced game day from inside the formation.
Now, whether I’m standing on the sideline watching halftime or looking through hundreds of photos afterward, I get to see the bigger picture.
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