“Please rise remove your hats and enjoy the playing of our national anthem.” Walking into a home basketball game students expect to see their friends playing in the game, however what most students do not know is that a special band is formed to perform at home basketball games.

Members from the NKC band are allowed to be a part of this group once the marching season has come to a close. They sign up on a sheet outside of the band room and mark off which days they will be able to attend.

Often this band will play popular pop music such as “Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5, “Lollipop” by Lil Wayne, “Crazy in Love” by Beyonce and “Shake it off” by Taylor Swift. The group meets one hour before the start of the Varsity game in order to practice their music.

The band performs at more then just the home basketball games. Each year this group of students has been asked to play at the College Basketball Experience Classics held at the Sprint Center. This tournament features four college teams over a two-night span resulting in one winner. Last year the NKC pep band represented the Aggies from Texas A&M, this year the Cyclones from Iowa State.

“It gives the band an opportunity to preform in a college atmosphere. There are only four bands that are invited to play at this tournament and it’s cool that we are one of those bands,” director Carrie Epperson said. The band met three times after school and once during advisory to prepare for this event.

There is no required uniform for this band to wear, however they are asked to wear as much purple and gold possible in order to show their support for the team.

Usually the cheers from the band can be heard echoing off the walls of the historic Field House. There are two voices that can be heard over them all: sophomore Greg Bush and senior Dodge Wasinger are who the band looks towards for each cheer.

“Cheering is always a good time because it pumps up our team,” Wasinger said. Some of the cheers that come from the band can be considered to be a little odd such as “I say basketball you say ball” cheer or the “Hey Burrito” cheer. It is known by most band students that alumni Adam Kelly who graduated in 2012 started the “Hey Burrito” cheer. Senior Alex Neiderberger took over leading the band in their iconic roller coaster cheer. where members pretend to be on an exciting roller coaster ride my mimicing the moves and actions that Neiderberger is doing.

Members that attend at least eight of the ten regurly scheduled games will receive a purple, gold, and white patch that says NKC pep band to add on the back of their letterman jackets.

This band is full of high-spirited individuals that are very talented musicians, they are there to cheer on the basketball teams and are there for the team no matter what the score is.

“We love ya we love ya we love ya, and where you go we’ll follow we’ll follow, we’ll follow because we support the hornets, the hornets, the hornets and that’s the way we like it, we like it, we like it.”