If you want the true college experience of going to sporting venues for free and then getting paid for it, then the Nevada pep band may have an open chair.

Three Fallon grads are enjoying the opportunity of a lifetime by getting to watch the University of Nevada basketball team while pumping up the crowd with their rock-and-roll tunes.

Matt Giebitz, Jaysen Goodnight and Tiffany Sharrard, all 2003 Fallon grads, will be making another trip to watch the Pack in the NCAA tournament. Nevada takes on Montana in the first round in Salt Lake City on Thursday.

"It is a very important support pep group," said pep band director Alan Sullivan. "We do our best to cheer the team and we're very supportive of what they're doing ."

Three different pep bands play during the regular season. The blue band plays for the men's team and all tournament games, silver 1 for the women during winter break, and silver 2 for the women during the spring semester.

Giebitz (alto saxophone), Sharrard (mellophone) and Goodnight (trumpet) play for the blue band, while Christy Barnhouse (piccolo), B.J. O'Toole (drums) and Peter Souba (trumpet), all Fallon graduates from last year, played for silver 2.

Both Giebitz and Sharrard are in their third year at the university while Goodnight is in his second.

Sullivan said quality musicians come from Fallon, thanks to high school director Lucas Koenig, who attended Nevada in the 90s.

"We get a lot of really great kids from Churchill County," Sullivan said. "Personally, I couldn't be more proud of him (Koenig) as a student out there. He's a real Wolf Pack supporter."

Giebitz enjoys the tournament travel especially when Nevada played at Seattle and St. Louis during its Sweet 16 run two years ago. He also liked last year when Nevada played Texas and Illinois in Indianapolis.

"That's great," Giebitz said. "I liked seeing different cities, St. Louis, Seattle, and Indianapolis. It's fun."

Giebitz favors playing at the basketball games because of the intensity of each contest and being indoors.

"I like pep band a lot. I prefer it over marching band because it's less cold," he said. "I really enjoy watching the basketball team."

During the tournament, the NCAA takes care of hotel rooms and airline travel for the band members. Each musician also receives per diem for meals.

Sharrard said she likes the advantages of being in the marching and pep bands.

"It's pretty interesting," Sharrard said. "I get to see different towns and don't have to worry about the expenses."

Sharrard knows the game will be packed with many Nevada fans filling the University of Utah's Jon M. Huntsman Center.

"That stadium's going to be packed. I know it will," the computer science major said. "I like how everyone dresses up. It's fun painting faces. It's fun watching the intense games like Louisiana Tech and Utah State."

Goodnight hopes the team win its opening round games and advances to the Sweet 16 again in Minneapolis.

"Nevada will get a challenge against BC (Boston College), but they have the weapons and the drive to defeat them and advance to the Sweet 16 and maybe beyond," said Goodnight, a music major.

If Nevada beats Montana today, more than likely it will face Boston College, seeded fourth, on Saturday. Boston College played Pacific in today's early game.