At the tempo of 180 beats per minute the metronome blared, and my feet struggled to keep up. I was locked in battle against my fellow senior band members, marching to commands, a traditional band camp contest called a “drill-down”.

Somehow I ended up winning. And I remember the moment, standing in the middle of the football field on that summer’s eve, one hand securing my saxophone, the other triumphantly clenched in a fist in the air. But even amidst the glory and surrealness of the situation, the hugs from the drum majors and the roaring applause of 200-plus band members, I never once considered marching band a sport.

Marching in the KHS Pioneer Pride Marching Band does not compare to the difficulty of marching elite drum cores and competitive marching bands do. Marching for KHS is not a sport, and neither is marching for any band on any level. Just because you’re being active and doing something difficult does not make it a sport.

Don’t get me wrong, the drill-down required quite the amount of physical activity. I will admit I was sweating profusely when it was all said and done. But physical exertion does not make something a sport. If that was the case, one could argue playing video games is a sport. I mean, your thumbs can get pretty tired after six straight hours of FIFA.

I am not here to hate on marching band. I respect everything the KHS Pioneer Pride Marching Band does. Being a four-year member of the band, it’s hard not to. As for the professional marchers, they are incredible. I could never do what they do. In fact, I wish I could be as talented at marching as they are. But success at a difficult task should not make something a sport. Calculus is hard, but no one is clamoring to call the mathletes actual athletes.

Marching band does not count as a sport, but it should count as something more than just another fine arts credit. My proposal is to make it a P.E. credit, maybe one semester could equal 1/8 of a credit, so if you take it all four years, you can wipe away a semester of P.E. However, even if marching band was a P.E. credit, it would not make it a sport. Remember that “Lifetime Fitness” is a P.E. class, and its main units are workouts and running with the occasional “wall yoga”. Those are certainly not sports. P.E. classes are meant to provide students with some physical activity, and marching band does indeed do that.

I realize that the classification of a “sport” is a sticky concept. In my opinion, for an activity to be considered a sport, it must involve competition against another team on the stage of a game or match. Therefore, marching band is not a sport, but rather an activity.

And for all those who partake in their activities, be proud of what you do. Sure, it may not be labeled as a sport, but it is an interest of yours, and it is an element that makes you who you are. So be proud of your talents, and march on.