H4TH: VT v. Clemson

Hokies 4 the Hungry (H4TH) is a combined effort with the Montgomery County Christmas Store to provide meals and discounted gifts for those in need during the holidays. It is a tradition that the MVs have supported for several years and is one that many members of the band look forward to participating in. Events include a week-long interband competition with bonus point items, and “canned bean” deduction points to harm other sections in the competition.

On gameday, the band disperses to tailgates to collect more cans and raise funds for the store to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, and toys for their discounted Christmas store. It is a lot of fun for members of the band, but it is even more important to be supporting such a great cause in our community!

The Golden Knights Precision Parachute Team! (photo courtesy of Andrew Single)

First Half

The first quarter resulted in a tied score of 0-0, with both the Clemson Tigers and Virginia Tech Hokies showing off their strong defense. The excitement came when Clemson went for a field goal. Hokie’s Keyshawn Burgos blocked the kick, and Quentin Reddish recovered the ball, rushing it 77 yards for the first touchdown of the game! This ended the first half 0-7.

Halftime

This week’s show was Dark Disney, highlighting Villainous themes from several Disney classics, including “Hellfire” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, “Anthem of Evil” from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, “Breath of Life” by Florence & the Machine (written for Snow White and the Huntsman), and ended the show with the main theme from The Pirates of the Caribbean, written by Hans Zimmer. The show was full of several moving shapes and lines, creating impactful images on the field. As always, it was another amazing performance in Lane Stadium full of cheers and excitement as the fans’ favorite themes from Disney classics were shared.

Roaming pep bands! (photo courtesy of Andrew Single)

Second Half

The second half was not as hopeful for the Hokies, as Clemson scored two touchdowns and held the Virginia Tech offense from any attempts at earning any points before the end of the third quarter. After the small break, Clemson pushed the Virginia Tech defense down the field again to score their last touchdown of the game. The Virginia Tech Defense still pushed to keep Clemson from running all the way down the field, however Clemson made their last advances with a final successful field goal attempt. However, the Hokies were not done. With Virginia Tech quarterback, Collin Schlee, making his debut during the second half, he threw a 14 yard pass to Ayden Greene, adding one last touchdown for the Hokies within the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. The game ended with a Clemson victory, 24-14.

Although the Virginia Tech Hokies were not able to clutch a victory, the Marching Virginians won big this week with the Hokies 4 The Hungry canned food drive! In total, the Marching Virginians collected 21,217 cans within the band, beating the band record set last year! Congratulations to the MV Nets for collecting the most cans and most points during our interband competition!

MVs unloading cans after a successful food drive! (photo courtesy of the Montgomery County Christmas Store)

Furthermore, a HUGE thank you to the Clemson Marching Band for donating 2,200 cans and $800 to our cause during their visit! The band also collected additional cans and monetary donations during our roaming pep bands, bringing our final count to a total of 24,518 cans and $16,000!

We want to give a big thank you to everyone who participated in our food drive to support the Montgomery County Christmas Stores and those in need in our community during the upcoming holiday seasons!

Ashley White: How Creating “Marching with the Virginians” Shaped my Career

In this post, Ashley White, color guard alumna, remembers and honors where her passion for showcasing her creativity came from, Marching with the Virginians!

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Did you know that over half of college graduates have a job that is NOT directly related to their field of undergraduate study? I haven’t been able to find any peer-reviewed research on what percentage of those graduates discovered their eventual career path because of marching band, but I can confidently tell you that it’s greater than zero! As an incoming freshman at Virginia Tech back in 2016, I was convinced that my chosen major, Marketing Management, would follow me through my entire life; I loved my marketing classes! In other words, when I created the Marching with the Virginians blog in the fall of 2018, I wasn’t expecting it to change my life.

Ashley capturing photos for the band during the March to Victory, 2019. Photo credit: Ashley White

In many ways, I was putting my marketing brain to work when I came up with the idea for a Marching Virginians blog: I saw it as an opportunity to attract prospective students! While the band does have a loud and impressive presence in the Hokie community as The Spirit of Tech, there is so much that happens behind the scenes to make that spirit come to life - and to me, that is what makes the band so special. I saw a need for a channel to broadcast the moving stories of teamwork and friendship that I was seeing on a weekly basis, especially for high schoolers that were considering Virginia Tech or accepted freshmen that were considering auditioning for the MVs. The more I thought about it, I realized that these stories would likely also appeal to alumni, parents, Hokie sports fans, and more. I reached out to Dr. Polly Middleton, Director of Athletic Bands, and presented her with my idea: a blog written by Marching Virginains to showcase the MV Experience. To my great delight, Polly was completely supportive of the idea, and empowered me to design and manage the blog. 

Ashley posing with Jim Sochinski, former Director of the Marching Virginians, after interviewing him for a project. Photo credit: Ashley White

Once I had the green light, things moved quickly. I worked with Linda Corell, who was the MVAA Online Content Officer at the time (and is now the President!), to create the Marching with the Virginians and Meet the Bloggers webpages. Meanwhile, I shared a blogger application with my fellow MVs. I reviewed the writing samples and selected an initial team of excellent writers who represented a variety of different sections, academic years, and majors. I also created a schedule and process for the writing team: writers would submit their topics to me for approval, draft the piece by a given deadline, and then send it to me for editing. After editing, I would design and publish the blogs on our new site keeping up a weekly cadence. As a nineteen-year-old, I was truly honored and humbled by the entire experience. It was so encouraging to have been given the trust and support that I needed to turn my idea into reality. All that was left was to announce the blog to the public and begin publishing stories! 

In October of 2018, I invited the MV community to “March Along With Us!” as we debuted Marching with the Virginians, and I had the honor of publishing the blog’s first post, A Team That Spins Together…, later that week (my name was Ashley Deans at the time!). I continued writing for, editing, and managing the blog until I graduated in the spring of 2020. Unsurprisingly, the blog meant a lot to me! What was surprising was how much I enjoyed writing and editing. I found myself genuinely looking forward to editing the latest blog post each week, and I was turning in my own pieces ridiculously early. I followed that gut feeling, and I began pursuing any communications-related opportunities I could find at Tech and through internships. My senior year, I became the Marching Virginians’ student Public Relations Officer, which gave me even more opportunities to explore this newfound passion for communications. The MVs are a huge organization with far-reaching influence, so the experience was truly invaluable. Some of my most treasured experiences were doing PR for projects like Hokies for the Hungry and Giving Week, that created measurable impact for the band and community. Even though I was learning so many new things and taking risks, it always felt comforting to know that the members of this organization had my back.

Katie Greh (left) and Ashley (right) collecting cans in the rain for Hokies for the Hungry. Photo credit: Ashley White

As I approached graduation, I knew I had a choice to make. Did I stick to applying for jobs that exclusively used my marketing degree, or did I take a chance and apply for jobs in communications? I’m sure you can guess that I took that chance… and it paid off! I got a job after graduation at a Duke University research lab as a Communications Specialist. Now, I am working in customer communications for Bandwidth, Inc., a global telecommunications company. I am lucky enough to say that I truly love my job, and it’s surreal to know that if it weren’t for Marching with the Virginians, I probably wouldn’t be here. Even several years and a graduate degree later, I’m using skills that I learned during my time as a Marching Virginian.

Alison Ritz (left) and Ashley (right) captured by Hokie Vision during their final halftime performance in Lane Stadium. Photo credit: Ashley White

Ashley White - Alumni Blogger and Online Content Officer of the MVAA Board of Directors

H4TH - Virginia Tech vs. NC State

This past week was quite the week for the MVs! This week was Hokies for the Hungry, Senior Night, and Parents Night! Before rehearsal during the long-awaited competition for who would donate the most to H4TH, each section was hard at work. From the Pix all the way to the VTubas, each of the sections within the Marching Virginians put their heads together to find a way to win the competition! Every day there was a new “bonus item,” where a certain canned food would earn a section extra points in the competition. However, there was always an item that one section could sabotage another section with: canned beans. If a section saw fit, they could put cans of beans onto another section’s donation pile and drag their points down. This created quite the rivalry between the sections in the MVs this week. After such an eventful week of friendly competition, the Tubas and the Nets were named the winners of Hokies for the Hungry!

This weekend was also our Parents Weekend! We invited parents and families of our MVs to see a sneak peak of our Space Show that we’d be performing for the game, and for dinner with us as well! Each of us were so grateful to spend time with and meet other families this past weekend!

Roaming pep bands! Photo credit: MV Online Content

During the middle of our fundraiser, the MVs enlisted the help of friendly Hokie tailgaters before the game against North Carolina State this past Saturday! The MVs were divided up into what we called “Roaming Bands” and each band went to a section of campus where we played for the tailgaters. Depending on what someone donated, whether is was a monetary donation or a canned good, we would play one of our stand tunes for the group. We absolutely loved getting to meet each of the tailgaters, and we are so very thankful for each of their contributions! After meeting and playing for everyone going to the game that afternoon, we were off to Lane Stadium!

First Half

The game between the Hokies and NC State was off to a slow start during the first quarter, with the score sitting at 0-0. Right into the second quarter, NC State wide receiver Kevin Concepcion scored a touchdown from a 3 yd pass by their quarterback, Brennan Armstrong. A little while later, NC State scored another touchdown, putting the score at 14-0 against Virginia Tech. Quickly after, Virginia Tech wide receiver Turner-Bradshaw scored a touchdown against NC State. The opposing team quickly responded with yet another touchdown, putting the score at 21-7 at the end of the first half.

Halftime

And just like that, the MVs performance was just a clock-tick away; we had the Space Show to perform. Our last show of the season in Lane Stadium included Gustav Holsts’s “Mars,” “Defying Gravity” from the popular Broadway show Wicked, and familiar tunes from Star Wars and Star Trek. Just before we performed works from Star Wars, by John Williams, we invited the graduating seniors and graduate students up to the front sideline to be recognized. This is our traditional senior recognition, for their tremendous effort in each practice and performance. Each of the graduating MVs has been a role model for new and returning MVs; they are what being a Marching Virginian is all about. We will miss them dearly, and we wish them all the best.

Second Half

After halftime, the Hokies were back in business on the field. NC State’s quarterback scored a touchdown a little bit before halfway through the third quarter. VT scored another touchdown in response, and NC State quickly sped ahead. This put the score at 35-14 at the end of the third quarter. The Hokies scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but fell short of a win against the opposing team by 7 points. NC State won against Virginia Tech with 35-28.

Hi there! Photo credit: MV Online Content

As we wrap up our 2023-2024 season, we look forward to our game against the University of Virginia this coming weekend! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, each of us are thankful for our graduating MVs, donations for Hokies for the Hungry (including donations from NC State’s marching band, the Power Sound of the South!), and our MV families! We look forward to seeing you at our game against UVA in just a couple days!