The Robinson Marching Knights are a great band who bring the home crowds of varsity football games alive. But they have only attended two away games this year, and are attending the last away game. I believe that the band not attending away games extremely hurts the aura and experience of the games for those supporting Robinson, and also defeats some of the reason of having a band.

The band has performed at two of the away games this season, and one of the games they attended, which was against Leto, was delayed by a thunderstorm. They attended the away game at Middleton, but left during the third quarter. They did not attend the East Bay or Brandon games, which the cheerleaders attended.

As someone who has attended all of the away games this year, I can safely say the Robinson sections at these games have barely any people and do not have anywhere near the energy that the home crowds do. Most of the Robinson crowd is football parents and alumni, with a few students sprinkled here and there. Having the band at away games would increase the crowd by about 140 people and would bring life to the quiet spectators that attend anyway.

One of the reasons that schools have bands is to perform at football games, so not having the Marching Knights attend away games takes away from the purpose of having the marching band. While there are also band competitions and concerts, football games are a great way for the band to show off their skills and practice performing for people in order to prepare them for their competitions.

In order to spread our school spirit and make football games more fun to attend, the band should be in the stands every Friday night, no matter what school the Knights are playing at.