MAPLE — Northwestern’s boys basketball team warmed up Friday evening, Feb. 16, just like they always do — well, almost.

As the Tigers took the floor to prepare for their game with Chetek-Weyerhaeuser, loud music rang through the gymnasium in Maple, but it wasn’t the regular pep band jamming out.

Tucked along the bleachers was a piano, a pair of saxophones, a tuba, a pair of trumpets and a drum set played by Northwestern band director Michael Hintzman.

The NHS Sports Band, as they are known, banged out a brassy sound that had more than a few fans tapping their toes along to the songs before the game began.

Jed Carlson joined the Superior Telegram in February 2001 as a photographer. He grew up in Willmar, Minnesota. He graduated from Ridgewater Community College in Willmar, then from Minnesota State Moorhead with a major in mass communications with an emphasis in photojournalism.