TOWSON, Md. - When it comes to getting a group of aspiring college students ready to perform before a large audience, Coach Rob Ambrose has got nothing on John Miliauskas.
All Ambrose has to do is get a roster of roughly 70 or so football players prepared to play each week this fall. Meanwhile, Miliauskas, has 175 members of the Towson University Tiger Marching Band to whip into playing shape in time for Saturday's football season opener.
Besides the notion that both the football team and the marching band will occupy a part of Minnegan Field at Johnny Unitas® Stadium for a time during each home game, there are other similarities between what the two men try to accomplish with their respective groups according to Miliauskas.
“We are still sort of working the same group dynamic and some of the same team dynamic, working with one another, pushing one another and encouraging one another,” said Miliauskas this week. “We have a product to prepare.”
Of course, no one is attempting to hit the tuba player at full speed wearing pads, but both squads do undergo some sort of a recruiting process by largely tapping Maryland for incoming players/musicians.
“Students join the Towson band because of the pure marching band experience,” said Miliauskas. “We structure our show to not only appeal to a football crowd, but to appeal to those high school marching band students that have something similar but grander to what they do.”
The difference between Miliauskas and Ambrose is that while the football program decides whom they'll accept, the band must sell itself to prospective trumpeters, drummers and piccolo players.
“That doesn't mean that they're music majors either,” said Miliauskas. “It's just that they fill their lives with the marching band experience and they want to continue that into college.”
While the marching bands at some schools are part of their athletic departments, the Towson band is an arm of the music education department at the University and music majors are required to spend at least two years in the band.
Still, each band member receives a $500 scholarship and beginning this year, some performers will get $1,000 academic scholarships if they meet certain criteria.
No matter whether they're music majors trying to get a degree or philosophy majors fulfilling a yearning to play publicly, band members, like football players, undergo a rigorous practice and performance schedule to prepare for the season.
This year, Miliauskas said, the band will perform a base routine with four songs rotating in and out of the halftime show each week and a full show for postgame – including vocals.
So far, the director said, the preseason practice has been as challenging as any during his eight years at Towson thanks to the weather and ongoing campus construction.
“We're a little nervous,” said Miliauskas. “We may end up at the first football game being more of a standing band than a marching band. But, we're working at it. We're definitely working at it.”
In the end, while Coach Ambrose's players will get a sense of their success by looking at a scoreboard, Miliauskas' musicians will have to rely on intangibles to determine how much their hard work and practice have paid off.
“When they come off the field, they feel great because they knew they did well and also I call it the love they get back from the crowd,” said Miliauskas. “The crowd response is really their ultimate reward.”
