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New Band Practice Facility radio spot - September 12, 2025
Transcript
Shauna Johnson: This is West Virginia University.
Speaker 4: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Shauna Johnson: Now in use, the new Pride Practice Facility, the home of the Mountaineer Marching Band, located next to the med fields on the health sciences area of campus. Drum major Michaela McNair, a junior psychology and biology major from Chesapeake, Virginia is a fan.
Michaela McNair: It really does feel different. You're not on hot asphalt anymore. You are performing and practicing as you would actually perform during the real thing. So it makes you more capable, I want to say. Completely performing at your max level because you're so used to this type of field and it really does benefit the band.
Shauna Johnson: The new practice field includes turf with markings that match Mountaineer Field at Milan Pushkar Stadium. The tower has been relocated and when it gets dark, for the first time band members can rehearse under lights.
Scott Tobias: It's been a huge game changer for us. The morale is high. Energy is high. The students are extremely excited.
Shauna Johnson: Scott Tobias is the director of bands in the College of Creative Arts and Media School of Music.
Scott Tobias: The band members have always known how much they are beloved around the state, the region, the fans, the supporters have always shown that. This field and this facility is a tangible showing of that, and I think that's exactly what they needed to go along with what they already knew was true.
Shauna Johnson: Up next, phase two of the project, which includes construction of a climate controlled building, with a covered pavilion to follow in phase three. So far, members of the university community have given upwards of $1.6 million to the project.
Speaker 4: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
Scott Tobias: I've had the pleasure of working in other states at other universities over the last three decades, and I can say that I've never seen anywhere the level of support or love for a band program that I've seen in this state. That is something that we can say thank you over and over again, but I don't know if that truly ever is enough to express how grateful we are for what they've done for us and continue to do for us.
Shauna Johnson: McNair echoes those thanks.
Michaela McNair: It kind of makes it very surreal and it makes you open your eyes at how grateful you have to be to be able to experience something of this magnitude. So it just really keeps me pushing to keep doing my ultimate best for this band.
Shauna Johnson: So let's go. Follow our stories at wvutoday.wvu.edu.
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