John’s Journal: Let’s Pick The Best Minnesota High School Pep Band Song

During the dark days of the pandemic in 2020, when no high school activities were being held, we managed to fill some of that time with a fun online exercise. I put together a 64-team bracket of Minnesota high school nicknames and away we went, with voting on Twitter used to determine the winners in each round.

In the championship match, the Moorhead Spuds defeated the Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms by a narrow margin, capping an exciting tournament. Nearly 90,000 total votes were cast on Twitter over the course of that contest, which was quite amazing.

We’re going to do something similar over the next few weeks, and this time we want to pick the single best Minnesota high school pep band song. For those of us who attend lots of games, tournaments and related events, the bands add so much to the experience. The talent and dedication of the musicians and band directors is incredible, and some of the songs are instantly recognizable while others may cause us to listen extra closely until we recognize the tune … or don’t.

This thought for a Pep Band Song Contest (the PBSC!) came to me when I heard the song “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes while listening to music at home on my phone via a Bluetooth speaker (and to think I’m so old that long ago I listened to music on AM radio). Seven Nation Army is a pretty standard pep band tune, and one of the few remaining lightbulbs inside my head lit up: “Let’s have a contest!”

The first thing is selecting the songs that will be included in the contest. This is where you come in. I am inviting anyone anywhere who plays or enjoys pep band music to send me your favorite song(s). I’ll need the song title (add the artist if you wish), and once we have enough songs for some form of bracket, they will be seeded and put into a bracket. At this point I’m unsure if we can come up with 64 recognizable songs, but you never know.

So here is your assignment: Put together a list of your favorite pep band songs and email them to me here … [email protected]. You can also send them to me on Twitter/X, where I can be found @MSHSLjohn. (You could also fax them to me but I don’t have a fax machine and neither do you so maybe nix that.)

Let’s have some fun with the PBSC!

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected]