Pep Band: Teen Spirit or Something Else?

Josh Yelsey was outraged, if only for a while.

Tony Ferruzzo was miffed, if only for a while.

Now all is semipacific in Orange County’s Pacific Coast League. And--who knows?--maybe a great sports rivalry began Jan. 12 when Yelsey’s makeshift pep band did its thing at a Northwood High School basketball game.

A Yale-bound senior at Corona del Mar High School, Yelsey lamented the lack of spirit at his own school’s athletic events. You might think every school has a pep band, but not so.

Corona del Mar doesn’t, so Yelsey and five pals created one. The group got two bass drums, a snare drum, a keyboard and a bunch of signs and called themselves the Corona Crazies.

Efforts in recent years to generate a little teen spirit had died on the vine, Yelsey says. But ever since the Crazies hit the scene at the start of league play, CdM is 3-1.

One of those wins came nine days ago against visiting Northwood High School in Irvine, and that’s where our story really starts.

The Crazies, all CdM athletes and wearing the mismatched uniforms of their individual sports, were in high spirits that night.

They played during timeouts, they played at halftime, they beat the drums to chants of “de-fense, de-fense” whenever Northwood brought the ball up court.

Oops.

Northwood Principal Tony Ferruzzo thought that was a bit much. He thought it was bad sportsmanship to beat drums during live action. And, more to the point, were the Crazies really a band in the first place?

If they weren’t, they were violating California Interscholastic Federation rules that ban “noisemakers” at basketball games. Understandably, individual spectators can’t bring drum sets to play in the stands.

At Ferruzzo’s request, the Crazies toned it down significantly in the second half, but that didn’t address the question of their legitimacy.

Drumming Out the Opposition

By the following Monday, Ferruzzo and the Northwood team had stewed enough to suggest that Corona del Mar forfeit the game, which they had won, 56-50.

That’s when Yelsey got incensed. He fired off a letter to The Times, which read, in part: “Basically, what the Northwood principal has told us is that our school band beat their team, and that is pathetic.”

By week’s end, I had rounded up the key figures and am happy to report that peace may be at hand.

Ferruzzo has withdrawn the forfeiture request, saying the game was decided on the court. And this week, in a regularly scheduled meeting, the league will review just what constitutes a pep band.

“What CdM uses is a set of drums that they feel constitutes some kind of pep band,” Ferruzzo says. “The question is whether that is a pep band or not. Our contention is no, it’s something to support the team on the floor and is not a pep band. It falls into the noisemaker category.”

I asked him if a full-size band wouldn’t have made just as much noise, and he said that while it might have, a full band probably would have muted the incessant pounding of the Crazies’ drums.

Ferruzzo doesn’t want to make a huge deal of it but says there is such a thing as fairness. Why should a band that isn’t really a band be allowed to rattle the opposition if the other team can’t reciprocate?

Although he dropped the forfeiture idea, Ferruzzo still thinks the drumming may have affected the outcome of the game, because it interfered with Northwood’s players’ and coaches’ ability to communicate during the game.

Yelsey is no longer mad at Ferruzzo and says he understands his beef. But the Crazies aren’t going away, he says. They didn’t play last Wednesday against Costa Mesa’s Estancia High School but did Friday night against Irvine’s University High School--that time wearing matching uniforms and under the guidance of a school administrator. That should satisfy CIF rules, Yelsey says.

Turnabout Is Fair Play

CdM Assistant Principal Robert Cunard says Yelsey and his mates had good intentions.

“They literally were trying to show their spirit for their friends” on the basketball team, Cunard says. “I’ve known these boys since they were freshmen. They’re good kids with good hearts. They’re neat people, not mean-spirited.”

Ferruzzo doesn’t dispute that. He just thinks the drums--not to mention the person with the megaphone (not a Crazy, Yelsey says)--tilted the scales against Northwood.

Deliciously, we will have an encore. Sort of.

On Jan. 31, Corona del Mar travels to Northwood for a rematch. Northwood has about a 30-member pep band, according to Ferruzzo, with full instrumentation.

You can count on the Crazies being there too. But Yelsey’s understanding of league rules is that they can’t bring their instruments to a road game.

“We will go as the Corona Crazies,” he says, and without the drums. “We will cheer and do our thing.

“And maybe add a little heckling.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821, by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail at dana.parsons@latimes.com.