DURHAM – The Coginchaug High boys basketball team was warming up Friday night before its game against Westbrook.
So was the Coginchaug pep band.
Band director Tim Fisher held up his whiteboard. “Brass Bonanza” would be the first song of the night. “Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum….one two, ready, one, two, three, hey,” he said, and the pep band launched into old Whalers standard as the players shot around and fans filed into the game.
Fisher erased that song title. “Sweet Caroline” was up next.
It was blackout day; the band members were dressed in black. There is usually a theme. Dress up like the ’80s. One time, it was “Dress up like Mr. Fisher.”
“I hope they don’t do that again,” he said.
There are plenty of high school marching bands in Connecticut, but pep bands which perform at high school basketball games aren’t as ubiquitous. Coginchaug’s has been around for a long time, way before Fisher took over as the school’s band director nine years ago. The school is small and does not have a marching band, but the pep band plays at football games, as well as basketball and a few selected volleyball games.
Between 20-30 kids who are part of the school’s concert band show up at 10 girls and boys home basketball games to play. It’s a small school and a small gym and though the band is tucked in the corner of the bleachers, everybody knows them.
“They bring that uniqueness,” Coginchaug athletic director Todd Petronio said. “Mr. Fisher does an amazing job with the kids.
“The students are always saying, ‘Is the pep band going to be here?’ Or the teams. They look forward to it. The referees will come in, in basketball or volleyball and are like, ‘Oh, are they here today?’ It brings that spirit that high school sports are about.”
There is a set list of 36 songs the band can play, and Fisher varies them to fit the occasion, shorter songs for a timeout, longer ones before the game and in between quarters.
Friday, they played the “Scooby Doo” theme song, along with marching band standards “Eye of the Tiger” and “Sweet Caroline.”
Fisher recently added Chappell Roan’s “Hot To Go” because the cheerleaders wanted to dance to it.
“It’s not straight marching band songs, we get to play new songs like ‘Hot to Go,’” said senior Jack Tobin, a band co-captain who plays the tenor saxophone. “It’s great to be able to be part of a group of people who help provide the atmosphere of the game.
“Mr. Fisher provides us a good space to be creative with the songs we choose; we have some input. He’s a great conductor, he has that energy, and he loves sports himself. He knows what it’s like to be in that atmosphere and what makes the energy stay up.”
Sometimes, Fisher will tell the kids the name of a song he wants them to play, and they’ll say they don’t know it.
“Like ‘Smoke on the Water’” he said. “They’re not sure, but as soon as they start playing it, they’re like, ‘Oh, I know this. Dad loves this song.’”
But the most important song to Fisher is the national anthem.
“We practice that a lot and make sure it’s a beautiful, well-played respectful performance,” he said. “It’s nice to have a live performance of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’”
Word of the band got around and for the past four years, the pep band has been invited to play at a Quinnipiac hockey game in January when the university pep band is on winter break. The game is usually on ESPN, so the band is featured.
“It’s a different vibe because it’s hockey and it’s a bigger place,” said senior Ellie Nick, the other band co-captain who plays the flute and piano. “We get most of the people at that. It’s not the same people who are used to hearing us so it’s a little more nerve-racking.”
Coginchaug pep band performs Brass Bonanza before the Coginchaug-Westbrook boys basketball game Friday night pic.twitter.com/iYPu5EDqJj
— Lori Riley (@lrileysports) January 4, 2025
Fisher is happy to be here. Almost five years ago, in March 2020, he was walking his dogs with his wife when he was hit by a car. He had a traumatic brain injury and had to have emergency surgery. Fisher pulled through and music never left him.
“I’ve had to do a lot of speech therapy,” he said. “But the one thing that was a blessing was that music was a part that did not leave. It was always there. Even when I was recovering at the hospital, they brought me a little keyboard, like, ‘Let’s teach you how to play.’”
Fisher immediately started to play the keyboard.
“They’re like, ‘All right, why don’t you teach us how to play?’” he said.
“When I was (in the hospital), between the students and band and community, I received over 200 letters wishing me a good recovery and hoping I would be back. That meant a lot to me.”
He returned to school part time in December 2020 after months of rehab and then came back full time the following February.
He loves the pep band. It’s different than a concert. It brings a certain energy to the gym that canned music simply can’t.
“The students are very focused in concert and symphonic band on classical music,” he said. “This is the opportunity for them to perform pop music, tunes they know, and the crowd likes that.
“I’ve heard from players on the sports teams, basketball, football teams – they feel so much more excited for their game when the pep band is there. When someone calls a timeout, it’s not silence, we just start ripping these tunes out.”