Brendan Keegan, 18, admits the name of the new Inglemoor High pep band is a bit pretentious.

Consisting of about 24 members and founded and led not by teachers but by brass player Keegan and other students, the Viking Elite Band makes itself heard at Inglemoor High basketball home games.

The band sits in the stands and plays during time outs and other breaks in the action.

“It started out as the top brass players,” said Keegan. But he added he quickly decided to allow any brass player interested, along with percussion players.

“It turned out to be not just the best players, but the players who have the most fun,” said band member and percussionist Jamie Cannon, 15.

All the members of the Elite Band also are members of Inglemoor’s marching band. But Keegan noted the traditional band doesn’t appear at all of Inglemoor’s games, not even all home games. That fact is initially what inspired him to put the pep band together. But further, the Elite Band has allowed members to move beyond the usual high-school marching band music.

With arrangements by Keegan and fellow student Garrett Hackler, the Elite Band performs popular songs such as “Low” and “Kids.” They also seem to have an affinity for classic reggae tunes. The band’s members definitely seem to like the musical freedom.

“We actually ended up taking requests,” said percussionist Shane Derrick, 15.

For the future, Keegan wants to work in some seemingly diverse offerings such as old Journey tunes along with the theme from TV’s “The Office.”

Just a few months old, the band seems to be growing in popularity. Still, Keegan admits he had trouble attracting members at first. He asks those members to practice together twice a week and they generally attend two games a week. That’s on top of whatever time they spend with Inglemoor’s mainstream bands. Keegan added practice space is sometimes hard to come by, but school officials have been cooperative, offering up the Inglemoor cafeteria if no other spot is available.

Again on their own, Keegan and his fellow band members came up with uniforms for the pep group: black T-shirts over white dress shirts. Each member also has a hat complete with a yellow band and feather.

While Keegan is the founder and director, he will be graduating this year. He absolutely hopes to keep the band going after his departure from Inglemoor, perhaps taking the show on the road to away games, as well as branching out to include baseball and soccer games.

Keegan and the others had nothing but good things to say about Inglemoor’s overall music program.

“The music program is so connected. Everybody knows everybody,” Keegan stated.

“Inglemoor has such a great music program,” Jamie said, noting among other accolades the band’s trip to China in 2008. Still, Keegan said it’s not so much the accolades that drive members of the Elite Band, but more just the fun of it.

“We’re proud to be band geeks,” he said.