The gymnasium is packed with students, faculty and alumni. Fans dressed in green and gold fill the seats and cheer as the basketball team comes pounding out of the locker room and onto the floor. The players warm up their jumps. The fans warm up their voices. But the marching band needs no warming up. They’ve been on the court for four hours, tuning their instruments and warming up for their show.

“Hemoglobin, hemoglobin, we want blood!”

The band’s signature cheers rile up the crowd and get the players pumped up. In the midst of all the excitement stands Yvonne Thornton, a senior math major who has become somewhat of an icon on the Sacramento State campus.

“She influences people in a positive way. She’s everyone’s best friend,” said Jonathan Fernand, senior psychology major and marching band president, who was named Drum Major for the upcoming school year.

People don’t usually recognize her for her flute playing or her piccolo skills. They know her as “that crazy band girl,” Thornton said.

At almost every sporting event, from volleyball to football, Thornton is a stand-out-cheerleading, over-the-top, wild fan. A self-proclaimed “nutty goofball,” she wears attire ranging from capes to hats and face paint. She yells at the top of her lungs for the duration of the sporting event and never falters, no matter the score. And she still manages to play her instrument.

“The marching band is like a bunch of die-hard King’s fans. Even when they lose ? we’re still going,” said Thornton. “We freakin’ love this school!”

Randy Rivas, sound director for the video game College Hoops 2K6, lived in Sacramento and played in the Sacramento Mandarin Drum and Bugle Corps before moving down to Southern California. He knew that Sac State had a talented band and decided to come check it out. He decided to record it for the video game he was doing the sound directing for.

“He recorded us with a computer they had set up,” said Thornton. “Then he was like, ‘come here and yell!'”

Rivas ended up recording the marching band for all of the sounds on the video game. He had them perform cheers for other schools and also recorded them doing the game’s cadence.

Thornton’s voice is clearly heard throughout the duration of the video game. No matter what team the player chooses, her voice echoes different cheers.

“I played the game with my brother and he freaked out,” said Thornton. “So that was pretty cool.”

Though the marching band is not a competitive band, members still consider themselves part of one of the best bands in the country. They play the same music as Division I bands, but they have fewer people. The band usually has between 80 to 100 musicians, depending on the year. This year, there are hopes to break 100.

“We’ve never broken 100, but this year looks promising,” said Thornton.

The band has come a long way since Thornton started school at Sac State four years ago. When she first arrived, the gym was never full for basketball games and the stadiums were pathetically empty for football games.

“We pretty much fill (the gym) every game now,” said Thornton. “But it’s a 28,000 person campus and we’re barely filling a gym for basketball games.”

Many students have noticed Thornton’s cheers on the video game.

“I’ve heard her voice, which was pretty cool, but I never noticed the Sac State cheers,” said Daniel Gormley, a junior majoring in recreation and leisure studies and an avid video gamer.

Thornton said that it’s undying school spirit that drives them, since they don’t have much else to rely on. Funding for the marching band is practically nonexistent.

“We get fundraising from ASI; none from the music or athletics department,” said Thornton. “We don’t have any scholarships either.”

The band members don’t complain about lack of funding, though. They fend for themselves when it comes to things like transportation.

“Once, our bus fell though and the school hired a bus to pick up the cheerleaders. We were like, what about us? So we decided to carpool and used our own cars and money to get to Palo Alto to make a volleyball game,” said Thornton.

Though their fame is short-lived and mediocre, they take what they can get.

In fact, Rivas contacted Thornton and the band to record more cheers and is planning on inviting Thornton down to his sound studio in the near future to record her infamous cheers.

“The next (recording) is next semester, during the season,” Fernand said.

Though the band was not paid for its recordings, Thornton believes she will be compensated for if asked to drive down to Southern California.

“It was so much fun, we didn’t need payment. But if I have to drive, they probably will,” Thornton said.

Lauren King can be reached at [email protected].