WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — The USC Gamecocks are now two wins away from winning their third national championship.
South Carolina women play Iowa in the national semifinals Friday night.
Many from the Capital City are ready to cheer on our USC women’s basketball team.
That includes not just fans but the basketball pep bands.
“It’s an incredibly exciting experience for the students. The basketball band at USC is made up of about 90 students, 29 of which travel to the NCAA tournaments and perform there. And those students evolve, rotate through the season in performances, so to get to go to the final four for most is probably a once in a lifetime experience. So we’re lucky that we’re headed back in consecutive years,” said Jay Jacobs, director of athletic bands.
Jacobs explains this is the peak, band members playing at the highest level right alongside the Gamecock basketball players.
Quintus Wrighten, the associate director of athletic bands is already in Dallas. He tells News 19 he loves seeing how close Gamecock nation is when we’re winning.
“Honestly, the fans treat the band like rock stars. Connection with fans is one of the best parts of being apart of the Carolina band. Our fans value what we do and what we bring to the game day and event atmosphere and experience. And it’s common as we’re moving from place to place when we arrive for cheers erupt. Fans want to take pictures with band members,” Wrighten said.
News 19 caught up with some fans leaving town from the Columbia airport today.
“[I’m] really excited to see us win another natty,” Tyshawn Dow a Gamecock fan said.
Dow bought his flight this week.
“Monday after we won. Yep. Was it a last minute decision? Last minute. I knew I was going, I didn’t know if I was going to fly out of Columbia or out of Charlotte. So they had this direct flight, I was like, can’t miss that,” Dow said.
Taking off, fans hoping the USC Gamecocks will do the same.