Football: Joe Votta fires up Holy Spirit teammates before games with unique ability to play the bagpipes

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher The home crowd at Cedar Creek High School looked a bit confused prior to the Pirates’ football game against Holy Spirit on September 26. They were hearing bagpipes off in the distance, but September isn’t remotely close to March, and St. Patrick’s Day, on the calendar. Then, the fans looked even more bewildered when they saw who was playing the fabled Scottish instrument — No. 65 for Holy Spirit, an offensive lineman. Joe Votta, a 17-year-old junior from Absecon, was leading the Spartans onto the field by playing “The Wayfaring Stranger” on his bagpipes. Not that anyone knew the title of the song. Or who Joe Votta was. Or why a football player was playing the bagpipes. Or how a 17-year-old even knew how to play bagpipes. Meet Joe Votta, one of the most interesting football players you’ll ever come across. Votta said he’s the type of kid who, when he gets an idea in his head, runs with it. So at age 13, after years of hearing bagpipers play in local St. Patrick’s Day parades, Votta decided he wanted to be one of those guys. His parents, Christina and Joe, he said, thought he was nuts. They thought he was certifiable when he revealed the price tag on a new set of bagpipes. “I just loved seeing it during the Atlantic City St. Patrick’s Day parades, watching all the bagpipers going down the boardwalk. I just thought it was really cool. I bought the whole kit and started learning myself. Then I got together with a band from Atlantic City and they pretty much spent a whole year re-teaching me because I taught myself everything wrong. I kept rolling with it, and it’s been great ever since,” Votta said. “It was a big investment. It’s a very expensive instrument, but (my parents) have been very supportive of it. At first they thought I was out of my mind. They thought it was crazy. Buying the kit was pretty cheap, it was about $100, but when I told them I wanted a $2,500 bagpipe, the look on their face, they thought I was crazy.” Votta started out small, ordering a kit online. He then saved up some money, and with a little help from his folks, was able to purchase a full-fledged set of bagpipes. “The way it worked out, there was a death in the family and in the will I was given $500, and through birthday money and stuff like that I was able to get it. The whole burden wasn’t placed on (my parents), but they did come up with a lot of the money for me. Now, it’s completely worth it. They see me at the varsity games and at competitions all over the place,” Votta said. “I didn’t know what to do or how to even put it together. But I got up with an instructor and he taught me everything. At first, I had no idea what to do. It took me a couple days just to put it together. The first time I played, it sounded like a screaming cat. I went on YouTube to see if there were any instructional videos. There was some stuff out there and that helped me out a lot in the beginning.” Joe Votta, a junior at Holy Spirit, leads the football team onto the field before every game by playing tunes on his bagpipe. Votta said he has been playing the instrument for about four years, and is one of the top bagpipe players in his age group on the east coast. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) His teammates were just as surprised as the Cedar Creek crowd when they first heard Votta play, at a Thursday walk-through before the season opener against Malvern Prep in early September. Head coach A.J. Russo actually had the team practice its entrance to the field, from the locker room, under the home bleachers at Ed Byrnes Stadium, and through the iron gate connected to the chain-link fence surrounding the field. “It sort of makes it like we are going to war almost. It gets us really hyped up, it’s a really cool thing this year. It’s a really neat thing. I knew he played them, but I never heard him in person, so I was really surprised at how talented he was at it,” said senior defensive back Marquez Jones. “He does a really good job with it at every game. It brings a lot of attention, and it just gets us hyped. We love it.” Added senior lineman Khayel Richardson, “It made me more pumped than I already was. We are the only team that does that, so it means a lot. He’s a really quiet boy, but he’s cool.” Playing the bagpipes isn’t easy. It’s an instrument that has 14 components and takes years to master. “I’ve played saxophone and guitar. The thing with the bagpipes is there are so many components to it. It’s more than just playing one instrument, it’s getting the whole set-up, from the drone that goes on the shoulder to the chanter where the melody is played — there is so much to balancing the tone. It’s a whole set-up. It’s like an organ, almost,” Votta said. Votta admitted he isn’t a great football player. He doesn’t see much time on the field during varsity games. Most people don’t know what number jersey he wears, and some people at the school don’t even know his name. But they know he is the bagpiper. “At first, I wasn’t sure what everyone thought. I wasn’t sure if I was going to annoy them, but after the first game they all said they loved it. I just tried to look at the ground in front of me and not pay too much attention to everyone watching. But hearing from my parents and everyone else, the reception was wonderful. Everyone loved it. It’s really unique having a bagpiper march you out at games. It something you really don’t see,” Votta said. “(Teammates) thought I was kind of crazy. They didn’t think I was actually going to do it. We did a walk-through on the Thursday night (before the season opener). Then that Friday we did it, and they just thought it was the coolest thing ever. It really got them going. They thought it was so cool. “Everybody knows me as the bagpiper. I don’t think they even know what position I play. They just know I play the bagpipes.” Votta puts a lot of effort into becoming a good bagpipe player. He practices as many as two hours a day and attends competitions all over the country throughout the year. “In solo competition, I’ve done very well, thanks to lots of instruction and lots of help. In my category I’m ranked first in the eastern United States,” Votta said. “This year, I took most of my solo off because of football, but I’ve played in bands that have gone internationally. I’ve definitely made some improvement since I first started. I practice in the garage. The neighbors are very forgiving.” Votta also pays most of his own way to attend Holy Spirit High School. He works throughout the school year to pay for the tuition, so as not to be a burden on his family. He believes the bagpipes may even hold the key to his future. “I’ll definitely look to keep going with it for the rest of my life. There are college opportunities that can come about from this,” said Votta, who noted that the school one would think to be the most likely destination for a bagpiper — Notre Dame — actually doesn’t have a program solely for those who play the instrument. “Notre Dame has a band, but they don’t have a program for it. There’s a college in Ohio that has a bagpipe program, and there are schools that give full scholarships for bagpipes.” Votta, who is 25 percent Irish, 25 percent Scottish and 50 percent Italian, said his favorite song to play on the bagpipes is “The Wayfaring Stranger.” Wayfaring is another word for traveling, and no doubt Votta and his bagpipes have done — and will do in the future — plenty of traveling. And perhaps it’s fitting that he marches onto football fields as a melody playing “stranger.” A true bagpiper wouldn’t have it any other way. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]