[announcer] "Ladies and gentleman, the
2013 Cornhusker Marching Band
The Pride of all Nebraska" [music]
My name is Mark Carney, I am a senior,
majoring in both music performance and,
business economics, I'm from Omaha, NE
my parents live in Castle Rock Colorado,
I play in the front ensemble,
I'm percussion major and my rank is
the front ensemble.
The band gives you opportunities you will
never be able to duplicate in your life.
I joined the Cornhusker Marching Band,
honestly, because I have been watching
them since I was three, we always went
and watched the drum line perform.
We always were watching,
the battery warm-up, which they still do,
outside of Arch Hall, and that was just
yeah, that really stuck with me through
my childhood.
Seeing the band throughout time,
I always make my dad come early,
sometimes he would grumble about
that, "dad we can't miss the band
outside of Kimball", or "we can't miss the
drum line warmups"
and, so they were just kind of
like superstars on game day.
I always had to see them or else,
it didn't feel like a game day.
And then, at the games,
I would always try to listen for them, and
my favorite song, honestly was
March Grandioso, or commonly known as,
Bo Pelini song at this point.
uh, my favorite song was always that,
and I would just, I would clap really loud
and get really excited every time
I heard that.
So, moving forward as I continued to watch
games every year, they added a pit in 2000
and all of the sudden I was like,
"is that a xylophone on the sidelines?"
and I was in high school at the time,
and I had just started to play.
Well I was, I had just started to play,
it was before high school..
I thought that was the coolest
thing ever. I was like " you can play
xylophone for the University of Nebraska?"
I thought that was really neat.
So, when I finally graduated I knew where
I was going to go. I mean I had thought
about some out of state schools
but, in the end I was like "my whole room
has a mural of Memorial Stadium, I don't
think I can go anywhere else."
So, I joined the band, tried out,
I was kinda nervous my first audition
I practiced all summer and got in there,
when they finally said I made it,
I, it was a really unique...
It was a great experience in my life.
That I'll, remember for the rest
of my life.
When I saw my name on that wall,
it was, kinda like butterflies in the
stomach, I called my parents, first
and was like, "Dad, you know,"
I guess it takes some explanation, but
when I saw that name up on the board,
It made me, immediately think of these,
season ticket holders, we had been sitting
by for years. They had a cousin,
a cousin or a nephew, something like that,
a family member, that was down on
the field playing clarinet, and they
always talked about her like,
"oh, look at her, she's on the, corner
of the S."
So, when I saw my name up there,
I immediately thought, "my dad's gonna be
in the stands, talking to the season
ticket holders beside us" saying,
"Hey, that's my son over there on the
sideline." and then. So, I immediately
wanted to tell him and it was a really
proud moment for me.
[sound of xylophone]
Yeah, being a part of the University
of Nebraska band is something that's,
I mean, Nationwide. No matter where you go
if you are talking to somebody,
"I go to the University of Nebrsaka"
They're like "Oh, that's cool".
yeah I play in the band", they're like
"Oh..", you know you get to play in
front of the ten best stadiums in college
football. I think the best.
But, you know people know that,
they know that you are tied into that
great tradition, and they know you get
to play in such a big stadium.
[sound of crowd and a cymbal]
My name is Mark Carney I play for Nebraska
[sound from the field]
"hye, hey, ho, ho Big Red..." (repeats)