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Since my kids have been out of high school (long-time), I haven't attended basketball games regularly. This year it's been exciting because one of my friend's sons was on JV.
I was amazed that the KHS Alma Mater is not played anymore. I was told by one of the cheerleaders that if the band played the Alma Mater at the end of the game, the cheerleaders would just have to stand around until it was done and then the band would have to play Hail to the Wildcats! Good Lord!!! The Alma Mater should be sung with the cheerleaders LEADING IT! The Alma Mater is the LAST song played. Surely the band knows it -- it's Hail to the Wildcats played in a slower tempo! I'd like to know YOUR thoughts about this?

Oh Pat...

I've been fighting this battle for almost five years with limited success. The 50th anniversary of the building brought about one opportunity for some of the old music traditions to be revived when I had been stonewalled with my pleas to restore them previously. I copied music (Light the K, Come on and Go, Alma Mater, etc.) for all the parts of the band during that school year (2006-2007) and one or two of those songs were played once or twice during the year.

When my daughter became the drum major in 2007, she made a point of insisting that the alma mater be played at the end of each football game and the only way the director/band would agree was if the fight song was played immediately after...it was a nice compromise and actually made for a rousing end to any game, win or lose.

She continued to encourage them to play the alma mater through the basketball season that year and I did my best to educate at least the girls basketball players (didn't get the opportunity with the boys team) as to why that song was played at the end of games. It seems the director has taken a lot of flack in the last 25 years because the song is so slow and feels like a "downer" regardless of whether the team wins or loses.

Unfortunately, the meaning/reason behind the alma mater has been lost on the majority of students and staff at KHS and apparently, they don't want to be educated on it. Playing the alma mater makes KHS "different" than the other schools in the area (and why is this a bad thing, I ask).

I've asked them to watch Notre Dame or Navy or other large college games when the teams gather before their band as their alma mater is played. They just don't understand that the playing of this alma mater is a time for the team/band/cheerleaders/fans to stand in unity whether the game/match was won or lost.

It makes me sad...they don't play it at graduation any more either.

In fact, every music tradition that existed when I graduated 27 years ago at KHS has been changed. NONE of them are the same...and they had existed for at least a quarter century before that.

Don't get me wrong...I think the KHS band is one of the finest bands in the district...and in fact, the state! I have enjoyed their performances so much since I've returned, though I am a bit biased by the fact that my daughter loves being a part of it so much!

I encourage anyone who is bothered by the changes in the music traditions at KHS to speak up. I cannot be the loan voice of dissension...I've tried.