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HAILING ON THE VICTORS
4
Alumni Pep Band members jazz up the crowd at non-revenue Michigan sporting events
By Bob Hunt Daily Sports Editor
s. cal fan who just sits on my hands," he
dn't go to class, Me said.
ust had a few beers So Dalton headed over to Alumni
here," Dalton said. Field and did his routine,-shocking
;, when Pete's wife, everyone to say the least. After that
net in the band, want- game, Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
th her to the Big Ten as well as the team went up to him and
nent, he couldn't go asked, "You're coming back tomor-
anent. row, right?"
ng to myself, 'I just Not only did Dalton come back the
can't go to a next day, he and his wife have been
Michigan comingback for four years.
sporting They, and whoever else from the
event Alumni Band they can scrounge up,
and be have now played at a variety of lesser-
a typi- known Michigan sporting events. In
addition to softball, Dalton and his
group have played at baseball, field
hockey and even once, at a swimming
meet.
"Shorts and Hawaiian shirts in Jan-
uary was just cool," Jennie said.
Because the group has played at a
variety of Michigan sporting events, it
w has now become semi-famous within
the athletic department. Pete and
Jennie now often receive calls from
coaches the night before a big
game asking them if they could
possibly put a band together.
Whenever they come out, it's
always a big event for the players
i~ k
on the field.
"We always love it when they
come," softball second baseman
Kelsey Kollen said.
Four years ago, when Dalton came
back, he played a triple-header as th
Wolverines won all three games and
the Big Ten Tournament champi-
onship.
Having done that, he was invited to
come back the next week as Michigan
was hosting an NCAA regional. Dal-
ton brought a few of his friends from
the Alumni Pep Band to support the
team for as many games as Michigan
played.
"(We got) whatever we could put
together, which at 2 p.m. on a Thurs-
day is kind of tough," said Pete, wh
now works as a salesman, which per-
mits him to leave his job at odd times
to bring his horn out in support of
Michigan sports.
That year, the Wolverines won to
advance to the Women's College
World Series in Oklahoma City, and
the athletic department asked Dalton
to assemble a group that would be
willing to make to the trip. Dalton
found five people who could take a
vacation on a few days notice and
traveled out to Oklahoma.
"Things didn't work out too well for
Michigan that year," Pete said. "But it
was aslot of fun."
The group often gets personal
thank-yous and e-mails fromplayers
after games, and has even been known
to be invited to their postgame parties
on occasion.
The Daltons have really taken a lik-
ing to playing at the minor sports
because they find players who aren'
trying to play well for the purposes of
leaving school and going pro but just
for the love of the game.
"Here is a bunch of people I can
really support, who are students first
and they are athletes second," Pete
said.
However, the group sometimes has
difficulty when it plays for lesser
known sport knowing when the appro-
priate time to play is.
"Each time we do a different sport,
and we've done a lot of them now, we
try to figure out when we can or can-
not play," Pete said.
When the group went out to Okla-
homa City four years ago, the NCAA
didn't know what to do with it
because there had rarely been bands at
the event in the past, Because the
NCAA thought that it would be an
unfair advantage if just one school
brought a band, the group worked
with an NCAA representative on mak-
ing rules for when a band can and
cannot play. The next year, the NCAA
softball rulebook had detailed regula-
tions with specific time periods dur-
ing the warm-ups and between innings
as to when a band can play.
But regulations or not, the fun the
group has and provides has never been
in doubt.
"These are great people, and Michi-
gan's winning," said Donald Adamek,
who graduated in 2001. "What else
can I ask for?"
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