The Evolution of Pregame Cross-throughs

By Daniel Sullivan | Director of Service, Lambda Class

With each new marching band season comes change. It’s an inevitable part of the college marching experience, as seniors graduate and freshmen take their first steps into Reser Stadium. While the Spirit and Sound of OSU is rooted in tradition, each year’s ensemble is composed of a unique group of students.

During my time in the OSUMB, one specific ever-changing aspect of our marching band has stood out to me. Since its introduction during my freshman year, the crossthroughs at the beginning of the pregame show have undergone quite an evolution. For those unfamiliar, the band stages in the two tunnels leading to the field in Reser Stadium. Then, to start our show, we march on in four lines such that the lines from the west tunnel end up on the east side of the field and vice versa. This results in a set of two-step-spacing cross-throughs that occur in the north endzone.

In their first iteration, the cross-throughs were performed as a hustle, with marchers quickly shuffling their feet to get through the endzone. While this resulted in a very high energy performance, it lacked uniformity. So, during the next season, this part of pregame was addressed, and the form changed to more of a quick march or jazz run. This added back some uniformity at the cost of performance energy. Finally, the current iteration of the cross-throughs was implemented for the 2018 season. This version involves regular marching throughout the entire cross-through portion of pregame. I believe that this is an improvement over the previous cross-through implementations, as the visuals of the two-step cross-through are much improved in this version. But who knows? Perhaps this part of the pregame show will continue to change in the future.

Unrelated to drill, this marching band season was marked by some important changes. The Beavers went and scored our first Power 5 victory in Reser Stadium since the 2016 Civil War. For most of the band, this was the first time they got to turn their hats around in Reser Stadium. We also welcomed our new Director of Bands, Dr. Leung, as well as welcoming back former OSUMB drum major and Theta Chapter Alpha Class member Amanda Studer as our new Director of Operations. These new and returning faces helped us to produce another excellent season of music and showmanship.