For decades, the Gardiner and Cony school fight songs have provided the soundtrack for the football season and all of the elements that come with it.
In 1997, Gardiner faced Bangor in a legendary Eastern A championship game known to locals as “The Snow Bowl.” Gardiner’s pep band followed the team up Interstate 95 to Bangor’s Cameron Stadium. Just as it had done all season, it was prepared to fire up the team and its fans with the school fight song, “Gardiner High School,” whenever the Tigers scored.
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The snow and freezing temperatures couldn’t stop the Tigers, who upset top-seeded Bangor, 20-6. But it did ice the brass and woodwind sections of the pep band.
“The band’s instruments froze during the game,” recalled Rob Munzing, Gardiner’s coach at the time, “so all the fans and the band and cheerleaders hummed the fight song after those scores.”
Chilly, damp conditions nearly muted the Cony band at last year’s thrilling Class B state championship win over Kennebunk.
“The moisture in the air ruins the padding (under the keys) on the (woodwind) instruments, and a re-pad job is anywhere from $200 ts $500 per instrument, if the whole instrument needs to be re-padded,” Cony band director Maria Sleeper said. “We did sustain some damage to our percussion equipment because the moisture warps the heads of the percussion equipment.”
Yet there was no question that the band would play on as the Rams rallied to a 30-23 win and their first ever state title, Sleeper added.
“It was pretty amazing to be part of that,” she said. “The kids were really excited that they could be there. Any chance we got to play, we tried to.”
Whatever role their respective fight songs played in inspiring Gardiner and Cony to some of the most memorable wins in their history, the fact is those tunes are an integral part of the overall football experience at both schools.
Unless Rams fans decide to break out in an a cappella version of their fight song “Spirit of Cony,” only Gardiner’s alma mater will be heard at Hoch Field Friday night when the two schools renew their rivalry.
The Gardiner pep band hopes to play it multiple times over the course of the evening. Tradition holds that they break it out whenever the Tigers score, and after the game if they win.
Although some will sing along with the lyrics — “Gardiner High School, Gardiner High School, May we ever stand, Honest, faithful and courageous, Loyal to our Land,” fans usually clap along with the music, according to Gardiner High School music director David Walker,
“People definitely recognize the melody, and we enjoy playing it as many times as we can,” said Walker, who has been at Gardiner for 21 years.
College football fans should recognize the melody, which was borrowed from “On, Wisconsin,” the University of Wisconsin’s fight song. High schools throughout the country frequently use the melodies of well-known college fight songs for their own school songs.
Walker learned in college just how much “On, Wisconsin” can boost the energy of the crowd. He was a member of the University of Maine pep band that followed the 1993 national championship hockey team to the Frozen Four in Milwaukee, Wis. With a large contingent of Wisconsin fans in attendance (the Badgers had been upset in the earlier rounds of the NCAA tournament), the band often followed its own signature song, the “Maine Stein Song,” with “On, Wisconsin” to get the locals on the Black Bears’ side.
“Little did I know I would come to Gardiner and be playing that song over and over again for many years,” he said.
Little is known about the origin of either Gardiner or Cony’s fight song. “Spirit of Cony” — which begins “We built our school upon a hill, And Cony is its name” — is believed to be an entirely original composition. But it was nearly lost forever. Former Cony band director Dwight Tibbetts once had to cobble together lyrics from various sources to put the complete song in writing.
“People knew the song by rote, but it wasn’t in writing anywhere,” said Tibbetts, who retired in 2012 after 32 years as a music teacher and band director for Augusta schools. “I wrote it out so the band could continue playing it.”
Fans get a copy of those lyrics with their game programs at Cony home games. Like Gardiner, Cony’s band plays the song as the team takes the field, after touchdowns and victories.
“I also will strategically place it somewhere if we’re down or there’s a time out. I might play it then to try to pump them up,” Sleeper said.
Students from both schools start learning their song in middle school, if not earlier. Members of the band, many of whom are athletes from other sports themselves, must learn the melody quickly once they join the band.
And don’t forget to bring the pep.
“We have a good time doing it,” Walker said. “The kids enjoy it and try to bring an element of energy to it to get the team going and the crowd going.”
And just like the players, the band loves to hear the crowd get involved.
“If they want to sing, it’s just icing on the cake,” Sleeper said.
Barring icing on the instruments, clapping along will be good enough.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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