Advertisement
Varsity Times Insider

Not a halftime to remember for Garfield band leader

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
Staff WriterFollow
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Imagine stepping alone onto a field in front of 20,000 people and twirling a baton high in the air, only to drop it.

Now imagine doing it twice.

It happened to the Garfield band leader during halftime of the East L.A. Classic, leading to raucous cheers from the Roosevelt side of the stadium.

Advertisement

When the band leader dropped the baton the first time, he tried, tried again.

Oops.

Fortunately, there were some consoling pats on the back on the sideline from a bandmate.

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

Advertisement