There is a little bit more pep in Boothbay Region High School basketball games this season. And it has nothing to do with three-pointers, offensive rebounds, or crossover dribbles.

The pep is created by BRHS’s band. For the first time in nearly a decade, the pep band is playing during Boothbay boys and girls basketball games at Porter Gymnasium. The pep band plays a number of selections such as “Hang On Sloopy” and “Seven Nations Army”  during timeouts and intermissions and after the game ends.

Boothbay clarinetist Kelsey Poore knew the pep band was an immediate success by her classmates’ reaction at school. Her classmates didn’t even have to say a word indicating their appreciation of the band’s performance. As Poore walked down the halls, classmates saw her and began mimicking the haunting, bass guitar rift from The White Stripes 2003 song, “Seven Nations Army.”

“I’d be walking in the halls and my peers would start ‘Dun! Dun Dun, Dun, Dun! It’s really been a great reaction and we’re so glad people like our playing,” she said.

The pep band’s reemergence is due to new band director Jeff Waldrop. In each of his eight previous years teaching, the pep band was a major part of building the music program. This is Waldrop’s first year teaching music in Boothbay Region schools and he challenged himself to bring back pep band to home basketball games.

“For me it’s a given, pep band and band are one in the same. If you are going to build a band program then you have the band play at basketball games,” he said.

Prior to this year, BRHS band students had no experience or expectation of playing at basketball games. This fall, Waldrop wasn’t sure how students would react to playing at games. But the band members have embraced their new gig. All 12 members are participating.

“I didn’t know how they’d react, but they are all participating and all excited about playing,” he said. “They are a committed group and a good bunch of students.”

The band meets three times a week and practices songs for game performances. Freshman drummer John Roberts enjoys playing at games and thinks it creates a unique atmosphere. “It’s definitely a fun experience,” he said. “The crowd really gets into it and provides a lot of emotional support for the team.”

As far as playing at future games, the pep band’s members definitely want the new tradition to continue. It seems nothing will stop them, not even a seven-nation army.