Not much is required to get the kids going at high school basketball games. Youthful exuberance mixed with the pulse of the student section is the match meeting the Exxon truck.

But you know you've arrived when the not-so-youngins are shaking things that jiggle when they really shouldn't. And the not-so-youngins don't care.

Now you know the scene at New London High last week during a girls' state tournament game, many of us who stopped moving at such things years ago, suddenly empowered by the pep band to shoulder shimmy and head bob, powerless to good rhythm.

Seems Whalerville has another hit on its hands, aside from girls' basketball, in pursuit of its third state title in six years. The pep band punctuates the home games with, you know, a certain peppiness.

"They've been a great addition," principal Tommy Thompson said. "Another element to the fan experience."

The pep band's emergence comes as the brainchild of second-year music teacher Jonathan Gworek, a graduate of the esteemed Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford. Gworek couldn't pull together a marching band in the fall, but proved quite resourceful nonetheless.

"There were a whole number of issues that prevented marching band from happening," Gworek said. "Both out of guilt and knowing we had more free time, we decided, myself and the students, we could perform at a lot more athletic events with a pep band.

"I was part of the pep band (in college) and it's kind of been my thing to play at different games. We started going to football and volleyball here in the fall. The volleyball refs loved it. They would wait for us to finish before resuming play. Then we started playing at basketball games."

So much for canned music over the public address system that in gyms now often sounds like the marriage of a jackhammer and a tone deaf composer. The Whalers offer some authenticity inside Conway Gym, some familiar (and perhaps not so familiar) tunes that get the masses off their ... well, you know the rest.

Last week, for instance, the band played a tune that pre-dated Gworek at New London. It's called "Genie," a cooperative between the cheerleaders and band, that features an "NLHS," "go Whalers," "what what," "woo!" and a cool drum beat. The place was awash in boogie.

"It's fun to yell (the lyrics)," Gworek said. "Really cool and a real cool beat. Everyone can kind of jam with it. That's kind of the point of pep band."

There's nothing more welcome to a school community than an extracurricular becoming the cool thing to do. Pep band is becoming a thing.

"It gets us playing and gets the students behind the music program," Gworek said. "Without that marching band season, there was a fear it might all fall apart and not be a thing anymore. We wanted to give the students a reason to play more and start interacting with each other in kind of the way you would in a marching band. Plus, you just get to play fun songs.

"Because of pep band, we've gotten a number of students interested in this. I've had them come up to me and go, 'I want to learn an instrument' because it's fun at the games."

So now New London becomes the beacon for other schools next season to bring their pep bands along, turning gyms into places to boogie, oogie, oogie till you just can't boogie no more (and if you don't know that song, ask the oldest person near you).

Congrats to Gworek and the Whalers for adding some fun to the games our kids play.

"I heard this in a musical," Gworek said. "There's a line in a song that goes, 'I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing than 100 people's ninth-favorite thing. That's the vision I had for pep band."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro