Oct. 30, 2025
Contact: Cary Littlejohn, carylittlejohn@missouri.edu
Photos by Kolden Lam
With less than five minutes until halftime, members of the University of Missouri’s marching band make their way down the stadium steps and onto the field for a familiar yet electrifying ritual steeped in tradition.
Along the way, each receives a fist bump from one of the four drum majors — leaders who embody precision, collaboration and the legacy of excellence that defines Marching Mizzou. They check in with the members, ensuring every performer is ready to represent the university’s enduring spirit of achievement.
From the sideline, a drum major blows a long whistle, signaling the drumline to start its cadence and lead the band onto the field.
The members halt and those who entered from the front side of the stadium pivot. Now all eyes — including those of the 57,000-plus fans in attendance at Memorial Stadium — are on the drum majors atop their podiums.
For six home games in a row — a rare stretch in Marching Mizzou’s rich history — the band’s members, including the Golden Girls, the Feature Twirlers and the Color Guard, have taken on an ambitious period of preparation and commitment.
Each game is a new experience because each game brings an entirely new halftime show.
Members are responsible for hours of practice to learn three to four new songs and march their corresponding steps flawlessly each week. This is in addition to their foremost responsibility as college students. Marching Mizzou is an academic class housed in the School of Music in the College of Arts and Science, but students come from across campus to play with the band.
On the field, all that practice leads to the moment the drum major whistles an eight-count in the tempo of the first song, and Anders Harms, the senior section leader for the snare drums, rat-a-tat-tats the band to life.
It’s showtime.
Practice makes perfect
To understand how Marching Mizzou arrives at game day, you have to step away from the roar of the stadium and return to where excellence is forged: the practice field.At ground level, the motions look like chaos. But from above, the brilliance emerges. The lines move quickly, sometimes within mere inches of one another. The marchers are highly organized; they form shapes and words that bring the music to life through detailed choreography.
All the while, they’re playing instruments, and the songs are instantly recognizable: Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration,” Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
Practice is purposeful and precise. The music stops and starts as Christian Noon, assistant director of bands, or Pete Zambito, assistant director of athletic bands, offer note-by-note critiques. Sections are played on repeat until perfect.
During a rehearsal in September, third-year drum major Brady Sohn, now in his sixth year with the band, reflected on the week.
“Whenever it comes to game day, it’s a really proud feeling that it took such a short amount of time to do this humongous thing for halftime,” Sohn said.
But what Sohn describes as a “short amount of time” actually means two-hour daily practices. And even that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The unseen preparation
For Marching Mizzou, excellence doesn’t begin under the stadium lights; it begins months earlier, in the quiet planning and purposeful leadership that set the tone for an entire season.On April 7 — the day after Marching Mizzou’s end-of-year banquet for Band 139 — Amy Knopps, associate director of bands and director of athletic bands, announced the new leadership team at 1:40 p.m., a nod to the band’s 140th iteration since its founding in 1885.
Knopps has a strong leadership team in Sohn and senior drum majors Maddie Balsman, Maggie Howell and Ava Lairmore. Together, they planned to face the season ahead with more than 70 new members transitioning from high school to the collegiate level and the rare schedule of six consecutive home games. Meeting that challenge would require innovation, structure and an unwavering commitment to preparation.
Everything moved up, from auditions for part placements to music memorization assignments.
“You have to get ahead of this as much as you can,” Knopps told her band. “Put yourself in a position where it’s going to take pressure off in the fall.”
By August, the focus and energy crescendoed into band camp — a week of three-a-day rehearsals that tested endurance, strengthened teamwork and reinforced unity before classes began.
The pace didn’t slow once the semester started. Because Marching Mizzou doubles as a for-credit course in the School of Music, Knopps layered materials across weeks in order to stay on track.
“Last week was Game Two, so we were readying that show but also working ahead musically to Game Three,” Knopps said after the Kansas game. “This week, we’re obviously working on Game Three but starting the music for Show Four tomorrow.”
Those overlapping rehearsals became a proving ground — a chance for every member to demonstrate endurance, focus and the kind of commitment that defines champions.
“It’s just long days and it’s long rehearsals and then it’s a long game day,” Howell said. “That goes for everyone, not just our new members.”
Even so, the energy stayed high.
Knopps said she’s proud of how the band has handled the pace, noting that processes have improved because of this year’s schedule.
“We’re definitely going to keep this approach moving forward, regardless of whether we have a six-game home stand or not,” Knopps said.
New approaches can only do so much; at the end of the day, Marching Mizzou’s sustained excellence depends on its members’ dedication and hard work.
“It's the hours spent outside of Marching Mizzou that are impressive,” Howell said. “Even fewer people see all of that. For me, just last night, I went into a practice room, and I just conducted for 30 minutes in front of the mirror by myself.”
More than just the music
Each week, fans see the results of Marching Mizzou’s hard work: new halftime shows that fill Memorial Stadium with sound, color and choreography. For many, it’s a highlight of game day, a celebration of talent and teamwork.
But what are Marching Mizzou’s members getting out of it?
The short answer: plenty.
For one, they gain highly transferable skills. The drum majors learn to manage with purpose and lead with trust, taking direction from Knopps, processing it and putting it into action on her behalf.
“We're basically at Dr. Knopps’ right side the whole time throughout the season,” Sohn said. “It’s about developing that trust.”
Leadership opportunities abound across 15 sections and eight committees — and from returning members helping newcomers adjust.
Balsman sees the leadership skills gained from Marching Mizzou as a complement to her academic pursuits. As a business major, she’s seen her confidence grow.
“When I came into college, I was a little more nervous about public speaking,” she said. “But as a drum major, we’re constantly teaching and leading meetings and addressing big audiences. That’s a fantastic skill I get to develop that can be used in any industry.”
Her fellow drum majors agreed.
“Fortunately, there are a lot of skills that transfer,” Lairmore said. “Being in this role, I've learned a lot about quick, concise communication. Figuring out what people need to know and when is so valuable.”
For many, the greatest reward is simpler: the joy of performing and representing the university.
“Our second show was a really meaningful show because it was aligned with the launch of Mizzou’s fundraising campaign,” Balsman said. “It's all about Mizzou and highlighting Missouri's power, and I love that.”
Knopps often reminds the band: “In Marching Mizzou, we do hard things.” It’s a mantra that drives every show. It’s also what made the show with some of the most challenging music one of the most fulfilling.
“Jazz was more difficult for people to pick up on,” Lairmore said. “There are a lot of musical elements that people just don't work on very often because we do a lot of pop and stuff like that for the crowd. I know the whole ensemble had to take extra time with our Gershwin show.”
When the six-game home stand finally wrapped, the schedule eased. But the music didn’t stop. For the first time in weeks, band members had time to catch their breath and look ahead.
“It was like a breath of fresh air getting to spend more than one week on a show,” Howell said after the last of the consecutive home games. “Now we have almost a full month until our next two shows, so I’m excited to see how they’ll turn out with so much time to work on them.”
That’s the Marching Mizzou spirit — ever-evolving, ever-leading, ever-inspired. Always looking ahead. Always working to improve. Always doing hard things. The guarantee with this band is simple: They’re never done innovating. And before the season ends, fans at Memorial Stadium can count on more surprises, more precision and more moments of awe from one of the university’s most iconic and accomplished traditions.
