Opinion: Is Band a Sport?

There is always an ongoing conversation that comes up every year about, “is band really a sport?” Well, I am here to break it down to you how it is indeed, a sport. Band life goes through the same hardships, independence, fun opportunities, sister/brotherhoods, sweat and tears that other sport do. I will be specifically writing from the collegiate band life and majorette dancer perspective.

I danced my freshman year (2022-2023) as a Prancing J-sette for the Sonic Boom of the South at Jackson State University. Being a SWAC dancer was no joke, but I’m sure being a part of any collegiate HBCU dance team wasn’t anything to be played with.

For starters, I believe the audition process is the most stressful part of the band. Making sure you’re in the right mental space for all the choreography, notes to remember, and interview questions, making sure your physical presence speaks volumes to the audition judge panel, and overall, executing the routine/music to make the organization.

Now, when band camp comes along, we have two weeks from the early mornings to evenings to learn, learn, and learn. From my experience, I had to learn five field shows on top of learning over 300+ different stand counts, plus running two miles every day, making sure my time was under 17:59, and working out as well.

Training in the band is intense, just like any other sport. You have to make sure you stay on top of all of the priorities you’ve built for yourself. The band life is just as serious, but fun all at the same time.

Learning time and place is important in all aspects of life. When you’re in someone’s organization, they expect you to not play with yourself and especially with their organization.

Brandon Clark is a junior business management major from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He’s been involved in band life since middle school, and he gave me his outlook on his world of collegiate band life. He says band is a sport because you have to know how to march, remember the music, and work out daily with an instrument that weighs from 3-50 pounds (depending on which instrument).

Clark is a 6-year quintet tenor drum player, now a part of Langston University’s Marching Pride band, and has played saxophone and the snare drum since middle school. Meaning he is really experienced in knowing how to hold an instrument. In the band world, there is such a thing as always marching at a 95-degree angle with our legs. With what Clark plays now, he has an advantage because his instrument hangs above his knee.

I asked Clark has he ever learned to do anything on his own since joining into the collegiate band world, he said, “Collegiate rudiment such as hybrids you know dealing with percussion, led me into creating my own parts- we have a lot of creative freedom here in the band so it’s on trying to adapt to that.” Adaptation is important in life so having that leisure of understanding what needs to be done is helpful for the outside world (it’s basically what other sports teach you).

I also asked Clark how intense is the training in general (from band camp to football/performance season). He feels as if it’s not as hard as other people in the band see it, he says, “a lot of people act like it’s just the hardest thing in the world, I think their bodies aren’t used to it or they just don’t take good care of their bodies or drink water…” I completely agree with him; if you’re in an organization that includes burning calories, you have to treat your body good inside and out.

Now back to the dancer perspective, I interviewed the 2025-2026 Captain of the Golden Feline’s of the Langston University Marching Pride band. We had so much in common.

Wanishi Avila is a senior biology major from Texas. She has mentioned that transitioning from being on a high school dance team, to a collegiate one is a big change. In her high school years, she’s worn only half-up half-downs and bun hairstyles with little to no makeup; now she’s more into wigs and having to learn to do a whole face of makeup for every performance.

I asked Avila about the intensiveness of band camp (before the semester starts). She said that band camp is harder than regular practice because that is the time to prep and get introduced into the style of dances, that has been implemented through the generations of the Golden Felines dance organizations. As a rate of 10 being the worst, Avila gave it an 8.

There’s always different perspectives of time management throughout being a athletic college student, or even a regular student. While Avila says she has good time management, Clark says his is, “Horrible, I’m not going to lie to you.” Which is perfectly okay from both sides! It really just depends on your major and the process of how virtual or in-person courses effects your time.

There is so much more to highlight, being in a band organization, good and bad. Which should get brought up in a later setting. That being said, I can confidently say, band is a sport and we are athletes.

Used middle photo from Instagram: @Tpurveyphotography