School officially starts tomorrow at the University of Utah, but these guys have been going hard at it throughout August. Every day they've been on campus bearing up under the summer heat, running their drills, lifting massive weights, drinking large quantities of water, relentlessly preparing for the season.
Not the football players. The tuba players in the marching band.
You think it's easy, lugging around a 35-pound instrument on your shoulder while playing John Philip Sousa?
Miles Andrews would beg to differ. He's a freshman tuba player for the U. band, and he played football in high school.
"Football pads weigh like five pounds," he says. Then he points to the octopus-like instrument strapped to his back.
"This," he says, "is like carrying around a wide receiver."
Amy Barnes, another Ute tuba player, was a swimmer in high school. One day the swim coach complimented her. "He said I had awesome lats and asked what other sports I'd done to get them. I told him marching band," beams Amy.
Interest in the Utah band has gone way up this year after a 2008-2009 school year that included band trips to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and to President Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington, D.C. in January.
"Last year we had 30 new band members, this year it's more than 80," said Bob Israelson, the tuba section leader.
"I went on a mission for two years," said tuba player Andrew Vaughn, a recently returned LDS missionary, "I can't believe how much more interest there is now compared to when I left."
All of it can be traced back to an undefeated BCS-busting football team that defeated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and will start the season a week from Thursday against Utah State.
Nobody at the U. can remember a school year opening on such a high, and this is a school that's been around since 1850.
Working out just around the corner from the tuba players was this year's cheer team, consisting of eight males and seven females.
Rob Gramse, a senior who is coach of the cheer team, said he's been bombarded this summer by e-mails from people expressing interest in cheering.
"Interest in the cheer team is way up," he said. "The football team is coming off an undefeated season with intentions to go undefeated again. A lot of people are watching the Utes."
And a lot of people will be watching the people who are watching the Utes.
That being the case, the cheer team is expanding its repertoire.
This year, in addition to tossing the women members of the team into the air and catching them, they're working on tossing Swoop into the air and catching him.
Swoop is the team mascot and weighs 170 pounds and that's without his beak — almost twice what a female cheerleader weighs.
Every time I watched them try to catch Swoop, they didn't.
"Hey, Swoop, know how many of my arms are broken?" shouted out Marcus Monson, a first-year cheer team member who used to play lacrosse. "Both of 'em."
Swoop's identity is a closely guarded secret and he does not do interviews. Although Gramse does on occasion translate for him.
"He says it's nice to be getting more recognition," said Gramse, meaning the school's football program in general and not Swoop personally.
As Monson took a break from trying to catch Swoop he wanted to point out that training for cheerleading is tougher than training for lacrosse.
"It's way harder," he said. "You're constantly lifting and using different muscles. And it's more serious. If you mess up you hurt somebody."
Sort of like a tuba player.
Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com.