Ep 29 Viewscapes
Sweet beats with the Cougar Marching Band
February 29, 2024
[music and crowd noise]
Larry Clark  00:19
The WSU Fight Song, the roaring crowd, the electric atmosphere. Washington State University's Cougar Marching Band is often the heart and soul that connects WSU alumni and fans at these games. Welcome to Viewscapes, the podcast of Washington State magazine. In this episode, new Cougar Marching Band director Jon Sweet takes us behind the scenes. He talks about the music, the marching, and the incredible Coug spirit in the band.

Adriana Janovich  00:48
I'm Adriana Janovich, associate editor of Washington State Magazine. And I'm here with Jon Sweet, the new director of Cougar Marching Band. Dr. Sweet started at WSU on June 1, 2023, and recently completed his first season with the CMB. Dr. Sweet, how did your first season go? What stood out to you? What impressed you?

Jon Sweet  01:09
We had a lot of fun. It was a great season, the students that I got to collaborate with on these shows were terrific. We had great student leaders. Everything that was in our purview went well. You know, the thing that I think I liked the most was the fans in the stadium. They were so kind and energetic, and, you know, responsive to the band. And our team, I feel like they played really well. At home for the most part, we had a couple little stumbles there. But you know, when the band was rockin’ and the crowd was rockin’, we definitely had the home field advantage. And that was a lot of fun.

Adriana Janovich  01:51
And what interested you in CMB, WSU and Pullman in the first place?

Jon Sweet  01:58
Well, the story I've been telling is somebody, a friend of mine, put me on to look at the job. But you know, the thing that sold me on it was the people here. When I got off the plane, coming from Indiana to Pullman, I wasn't sure what to expect. And one of the assistant directors for the marching band picked me up and we drove around town and hit it off really quick. And I think those interactions are what sold me the most. Just visiting with the students, visiting with the faculty, visiting with the school of music faculty and leadership at the university. It's a really fun and happy place where people like to be.

Adriana Janovich  02:44
And talk about some of the changes you made this first season.

Jon Sweet  02:49
Well, you know, the band was already doing some things really well. So the changes we had, there were some under the hood changes for how we learn marching band shows and things like that. We added an app called Ultimate Drill Book, so that the students could see digitally exactly what their responsibilities were, where to stand on the field. I have it programmed so like Gesa Field is on the app, and they can see, oh, I stand right on the Coug head kind of thing for each spot. So we were able to do some neat things like that. We retooled the pregame show. It hadn't really been touched in well over a decade. So we felt like it was time to do that. And so we put the Cougar script logo in there, we put the Coug head, we added America the Beautiful. Things like that into it. So, you know, the changes were not drastic, I don't think, by any means. Because the people that were here before us doing things did things really well. You know, we were able to just put our personal stamp, freshen things up. And you know, when you're collaborating with a team of people that I get to work with every day, they have some really great insight on what things had worked really well, what things have not worked. And we made changes so that the students had a great experience and then the fans would have a great experience.

Adriana Janovich  04:12
And what were some of your favorite shows this season?

Jon Sweet  04:17
Wow. That's hard because each one of those shows is like a child. You know, I designed the visual for all the shows. And so I spent a lot of time making all that stuff come together. So you know, I think I liked them all in one way or another. I mean, if I had to rank them, the space show was a whole lot of fun. I love doing the Star Trek music and playing Rocket Man and spelling win the day out there because that was a fun little, you know, thing we were able to throw in. I liked the Shrek show. That was a show that I had in the back in my brain for you know, five or six years now. So I finally had the opportunity to do it. I think my favorite moment, though, was the very first halftime of the year. And that's when we did the hard rock show. We had that first big hit in your face of music. And the crowd was like, wow, that's cool. And, you know, got a lot of social media views. My heart before every show is pumping out of my chest, almost like this huge nervous energy of how is it going to be respond? How are the fans going to respond to it, and the fans delivered every time. It was wonderful. I guess probably second, I really liked the first time we made the Cougar head logo in pregame and they put it on the Jumbotron. And the crowd was like, Ooh, cool. You know, that was a cool moment. Any moment where my students are smiling and the faculty are smiling, and we're all having a good time, we're not stressed about how the performance is going to go because we know the kids are going to do great. That's a great moment. We've had a lot of those this year.

Adriana Janovich  06:02
Do you have favorite music for the CMB to perform to?

Jon Sweet  06:07
You know, my standard boilerplate answer for that is anytime we do a show, I want to hit a bunch of different generations with it. So maybe, you know, we have classic with regular in there. And sometimes we're able to do that really well. Sometimes, the show theme doesn't really work with it. Well, I'm a huge fan of classic rock. I love movie soundtracks. Some of the latest pop stuff, I enjoy that. I started listening to Taylor Swift. And I guess you know, when you're in my line of business, if you don't keep up with the latest kind of music, you're lost. And you know, so the thing to me is, I like things that the crowd can resonate with, maybe sing along with those. You know, I remember when we did All Star this last year. I heard people in the crowd, lots of people in the crowd singing along with it. When we did Take Me Home, Country Roads and then we spell home in the middle of the field and made the outline of the state of Washington. You know, and I heard people singing “country roads, take me home.” I thought that was cool. So you know, those moments, I guess those are my favorites.

Adriana Janovich  07:14
The CMB recently launched a campaign for new uniforms. Tell us about that. Why do they need them? And can you give us kind of a preview of what the new ones will look like? Have you reached your fundraising goal, or how much is still needed to provide those new uniforms?

Jon Sweet  07:30
When I got offered the job, I'd already asked about uniforms and things like that. I love our uniform design. It's great. It resonates with the crowd, everybody, you know, it's iconic and things like that. But this band every 10 years or so has changed up the look. It's just, you know, time to do that. But I didn't go into the season thinking that we were going to need to do it so soon. Two things started happening that we had to start planning way ahead, we're talking a year in advance, just because we had to the uniforms. We didn't when we were fitting out the band this year, we were over 200 people this year. And with them being seven or eight years old at the time, they were wearing out. We have some uniforms that were just unusable completely. The weather here is widely varied, it just goes all over the place. So it had been in rain, snow, all sorts of things. They were nearing the point of un-usefulness. They weren't holding clean and things like that. 
But the biggest thing is we just didn't have enough. We had, you know, some larger people this year. I praised them for being so flexible. And I never heard a single student complain. But you know, we had to sew extra parts in the back of the jacket, to have enough to fit our band. We just didn't have enough. So we had to take smaller jackets that we didn't need for smaller folks and buy a panel of--it's like a nylon gabardine that we use in the fabric--put zippers on opposite sides and make a panel so we could extend the size of the jacket. You know, from 50 yards away, most people couldn't tell. And we were really thankful for that. And a lot of our stuff is like that. But if you get up close to the band, you start seeing threads and all sorts of things and jackets didn't fit right. 
So we wanted to make sure that with our band that's growing. We gained about 30 students this past year and we're looking at another big gain hopefully this next year, that we wanted to have enough uniforms so we didn't have to turn people away. One of the coolest things about the Cougar Marching Band is if you've marched in high school band or you've been in high school band, even if you haven't marched, if you just flat out been in high school band, we have a spot for you. And we want you to be there and we want you to cheer on the Cougs and have that positive experience. And without more uniforms, we weren't going to be able to offer that to everybody, we'd have to limit enrollment. So we're trying to figure that out. When it comes to the fundraising component, I feel like we've done pretty good. Overall, we kicked it off in mid-September. Now we're almost to mid-February. So we're, you know, five months down the road, six months down the road, something like that. My math is, I'm not a math person, I'm a band person. So, you know, I think we're around 40% of our goal. When we first kicked off the fundraiser, the amount that we were going for, we're going for $250,000. Because of the cost of estimated cost of uniforms, once we finalize the design, we found that we didn't need as much, which is great. So now our target is to get enough uniforms for next year, about right at $200,000. A little bit more, which includes taxes and things like that closer to 10. 
We're not there yet. We're still visiting with people and stakeholders and finding what we can do more working with the money that we have raised, our uniform is going to have different options that we can use based on the temperature outside, we're getting new pants, the new pants part of the uniform and the lighter weight top, so that we're good for the first few games and then hopefully, we can raise a little bit more in order the next layer and more in order the next layer. So by the end of the season, we're good, if we don't raise enough money to do that, and the university is unable to help us out in some way. And you know, funds are limited. So we're trying to be very respectful of that, then we'll just put on some coats over the top of the lightweight stuff, the raincoats we have, and layer up so that our students are warmer. I don't want them to be miserable when it's really cold outside. So we're not there. If you know somebody that would like to donate $125,000 to the band, I'm sure we can make it worth their while. And I know their students would be appreciative. But yeah, and you ever asked for the look, it still has the Coug head on it. It is maybe a more modern look than what we've had for the last 10 years. But we want these uniforms to work for the next 10 years until we need to do another design. You know, we're trying to make sure that they're representative of what we want Cougs to look like, so that you all can have a great entertaining experience, whether we're parading by you or performing at halftime or pregame.

Adriana Janovich  12:35
They've got to look good. And they have to feel good. 

Jon Sweet  12:38
Yeah, for me, for sure. A lot is asked of these students, you know, it's almost, I mean, I see so many of them out of breath at the end of the show. It's almost like an athletic experience to perform one of these shows. So we want to give them the same treatment as our outstanding athletes at WSU have. We want to make sure that they're given the same respect and tools that they can have.

Adriana Janovich  13:02
It is a lot of work. Talk about what the kind of the itinerary is for a game day at home. There's a lot that goes in behind the scenes. 

Jon Sweet  13:14
A little over six hours before kickoff, we'll have a rehearsal at Gesa Field to go over the both pregame and halftime, maybe run some music from the various parades and concerts that we give during the day. So we have to fit all of that in and about an hour to warm-up stretch, get some training stuff in, and review. After that for about, you know, five or 10 minutes the band for ever has circled up around the Coug head on the field and sings Washington, My Washington. They do the band motto and things like that. And you know, the first time I was there to watch it, I almost got a few tears in my eye. It's really special and you've walked around, Adriana, and you've seen how much, you know the passion our students have for WSU. And they all talk that. You know we asked them you know, what's the best part? They're like, oh, I just love the students and I love my friends, my family, and I'll never forget performing with them. But you watch them singing Washington, My Washington, especially at the game you were at, that was the last time for the season, last time the seniors did it and the students have the tears in their eyes. You know, how important this experience is for their whole life. You know, it's not just college. This is something that they're going to take with them for the rest of their life. 
[music]
All of the students, you know everyone that I talked to would love, you know, now the season's over, they've had time to reflect to go, “Yeah, I'd like to put my uniform on one more time and do one more performance” after they've graduated. That means we're doing something right. I think that music speaks a lot to that.

Adriana Janovich  15:15
It does give you chills to watch them circle around the Coug head in the center of the field. It was really cool to get to see them do that. And it's a neat part of the video that we have on our website. What role does a marching band play on a college campus in general and how important is the CMB to the WSU community?

Jon Sweet  15:38
You know, there's so much talk these days of between pro games and college. And, you know, and that line is getting blurred from student athletes, with the NIL deals and things like that conference realignment, I mean, all of that. In our marketing department wants to have a really great sound system and things like that, and playing all, you know, the current trendy music, to do things. But the one thing that college has, college football, college basketball, that pros don't have, and that's the marching band. You take that away and immediately it doesn't become the college experience anymore. I think that's one thing that's really special about WSU is, our athletics department wants the band to be a part of the game day atmosphere, you know, at the sports we're at. So when you come to WSU, you're going to get the college experience. I feel like it's my responsibility to care for the game day experience, to care for the college experience with our fans, so that when they come they go, you know, when they hear a fight song, you know, and they're tailgating and we're hundreds of yards away, but they can hear the echoes, they sing along with and it becomes part of the Coug spirit. 
I'm a Cubs fan. And so when I walk into Chicago, and the Cubs when I hear the song, I immediately resonate. But you know, there's not that many of those songs, I mean, in all pro sports. There's a few here and there. But you know, on a whole, if you want to get all of the Coug fans united on something, all you have to do is play the Fight Song. People use commercials around here with the Fight Song because it resonates with the university because, you know, that’s as iconic as the Coug head. Anywhere we go, we see the Coug, we're like, that's the best logo, in all of sports, all of college sports. Everybody sees that. Everybody hears our Fight Song, they're all united. That's the best fight song in all college sports because that's my Coug fight song. So with a mark, without the marching band, it's just another recording that's played. And that doesn't serve the same purpose. So that's my two cents on that.

[music]

Adriana Janovich  18:00
It's the heartbeat of the university, for sure. What are your hopes for the Cougar Marching Band during your tenure?

Jon Sweet  18:21
That changes from day to day, I would love to see the band bigger. To me that's a product. And the process that we're all about, is creating an environment where people want to be where they love marching band, where you know, the faculty and the experience how they interact is all something that they go, I just can't live without this. That's our goal every day. My goal is I love seeing students smile when they do something cool, whether they've done it before or not. Anytime they get that visual reaction where they smile, when they're coming off the field and they're smiling, they're happy. Like, “Oh my word, that was the best thing in the world.” When students who have this year posted the Facebook link or the you know, eventually the YouTube links and things like that, when they post those and go, “this was my favorite show I've ever done in my whole life.” And then two weeks later, we do another show. “I was kidding. No, this is my favorite.” You know and seeing stuff like that when they're proud of what they're doing. And the fact that they're talking about how cool the band is, how cool their friends are, how cool the experience is. The band is not one person, you know. I've had a lot of people come up to me like, Oh, you're the new marching band director. It's just, you know, lots and lots and lots of people want to put a name with that position. I think the best thing for me this year is people are talking about the kids. They want to know where I came from. But they're not saying, Jon, you did this know. I didn't do a thing, I didn't play a single note. That's all of them and watching them just light up and smile and go, I want to do that again. And then you know, they're gonna have their kids in the WSU band and, you know, however many years, and hopefully, you know, you get the experience to teach the kids who have kids who have kids, you know, kind of thing. So, what are my goals? I just, it's creating a culture that people are just loving. I mean, I think that's the nitty gritty of it all.

Adriana Janovich  20:29
What do you want Cougs to know about you, your background, where you came from? What should they know?

Jon Sweet  20:38
You know, I could talk about hobbies. I could talk about family, all things. I mean, if you want to know the weird thing, I always wanted to be good at sports. And I wasn't. I have two brothers that were both insanely talented in sports. They got all that talent. And then I found marching band. And I was like marching band, band and sports, like and how all those come together. So really, I'm just a big sports nerd that loves to do band. I love to talk about sports. I'm a big hockey fan, you know, Dallas Stars and things like that. I like watching baseball and basketball. And, you know, talking about my Kentucky Wildcats and things like that. And most people will entertain for a second unless they really don't like Kentucky. But you know, I'm just a wannabe jock that does the music thing.

Adriana Janovich  21:30
And what else is important for you to know about CMB?

Jon Sweet  21:34
The thing about CMB is, it's diverse. It's got all sorts of different students from different backgrounds. You know, it's very representative of the way our campuses are diverse. But you know, what I want you to know about that is these kids, these performers, they're people that you know, go above and beyond their normal class day to participate these things. If we're just hanging out, you always can go up and talk to a student and find one that's a lot like you are, majoring in something like you did. Eighty percent of our kids major in something other than music. I like to call those future donors by the way. Come out and say hi, when we're walking around, we're waiting for our next performance. You see the uniform, these kids love to cheer on with you, seeing the fight song, anything for you.

Adriana Janovich  22:30
Dr. Sweet, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. Any parting last words? 

Jon Sweet  22:32
I'll just say, Go Cougs!

Larry Clark  22:41
Thanks for listening. If you'd like the magazine podcast, please like us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 
You can find more episodes and WSU stories at magazine.wsu.edu. 
This episode's music was from the Cougar Marching Band at a November 2023 football game. Go Cougs! 
[music, announcer, crowd noise]