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By JEROME CHRISTENSON, Winona Daily News
      


WINONA, Minn. (AP) - What do you do when most pep bands have
more members than your school has students?


      With fewer than 50 students, just putting a basketball team on
the court takes a significant portion of the student body, so, at
first blush, putting a band in the stands might seem out of reach
... and, in a literal sense, it was.


      Members of the Hope High Pep Band play on the floor in a corner
of the gym - all three of them.


      For the record, that's Jacob Finke on lead guitar, Michael
Hoepner on bass and Alex Butenhoff on drums.

      "We're the only one we know of," Alex said.

      The school tried to put together a more traditional pep band
last year - "with trumpets and stuff," Jacob said. "But it
didn't get off the ground."


      A similar attempt this year "didn't generate enough interest."


      "So we got together and decided to play for basketball games,"
Michael said.


      The response was better than the band could have imagined.


      "They are awesome," Hope High athletic director Angie Meyer
said. "The first night they played, everything changed."


      The repertoire isn't John Philip Sousa - there's no arrangement
of "Stars and Stripes Forever" for electric bass - but the boys
get the crowd going with their own full power covers of classic
rock and roll.


      "I definitely enjoy Jimi Hendrix covers," Alex said.


      "Mr. Going, our science teacher, wanted Led Zeppelin, so we
learned a couple of their songs," Michael said. "And the Batman
Theme Song - everybody likes that one."


      All told, the trio has developed a repertoire of 15 to 20 songs
since they got together in September and are adding to that on a
regular basis.


      "We learned two new ones last night for tonight," Michael
said.


      The boys limit themselves to instrumental renditions.


      "We don't exactly have the voices of angels," Alex confessed.


      "Our real excuse is that pep bands don't have singers," Jacob
injected.


      The band practices two to two-and-a-half hours a week in Alex's
father's garage in Rollingstone, Minn.


      "We can get as loud as we need to be," Michael said.


      The boys credit Jacob's father, Larry Finke, Hope High music
director, with helping them get going and inspiring their
repertoire.


      "Dad's a big fan of classic rock," Jacob said.


      The band faces a membership crisis next year as one third of
their membership is due to graduate at the end of this school year.
Michael said he plans to go to Winona State and intends to stay in
touch and keep playing with his bandmates.


      "I might even play some basketball games next year," he said.


      Meanwhile, the band has hit a positive note with their fellow
students.


      "They're pretty much the big hit of the school," Meyer said.
"It's wonderful for them to pop up and do this."

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Minnesota News

Greater Minnesota

With fewer than 50 students, just putting a basketball team on
the court takes a significant portion of the student body, so, at
first blush, putting a band in the stands might seem out of reach
... and, in a literal sense, it was.


      Members of the Hope High Pep Band play on the floor in a corner
of the gym - all three of them.

Minnesota pep band is all guitars and drums

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