Should marching band be considered a sport

I accept. Please don't forfeit, as I would really like to finish this debate and am looking forward to it. To begin, my opponent has essentially made someone else's arguments the majority of his, and used them as evidence as well. This does not leave me with much to directly counter, but nonetheless I will proceed. As implied, I will be arguing that marching band should NOT be considered or classified as a sport. I would like my opponent to know that I am an avid musician myself, and I have nothing against the marching band program. I have been playing the piano for about 10 years, and the cello for about 8 years now. While I am not in marching band, I am well aware of the commitment that music requires. I am currently in my high school's chamber orchestra, and I perform with a youth symphony outside of school. That being said, I will now explain to my opponent why I feel that marching band is not a sport, nor should be classified as such. The dictionary definition of a sport is, "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature". My opponent has provided some additional definitions from different dictionaries, however I will be basing my arguments off of this one. He has established that marching band involves skill and competition. I strongly agree with this. Playing a musical instrument is not an easy task, and often requires years of practicing in order to master. Marching bands compete all the time, just like sports teams do. So far, this satisfies the dictionary definition. At this point I will deconstruct this and analyze. If, for a moment, we take out the "marching" aspect, we just have a band. Band, or orchestra for that matter, is not a sport. It is an art. Those who participate in this activity are not called athletes. They are called musicians. Now, we will be discussing the "athletic" category; essentially, adding back in the "marching" component. I'm sure my opponent would agree with this, and since we are debating on whether or not it is a "sport", I will make the assumption that we will be discussing the physical activities involved, and whether or not these justify qualifications as a sport. As the article stated, "the difficulty is [. .. ] equal to other sports". Marching while holding a heavy instrument is undeniably difficult. However, just because the difficulty may be similar to sports does not mean that it automatically should be called a sport. By the logic of this article, we could call construction work a "sport", because they do physically exerting tasks and compete in some ways. Yet, construction work is not a sport. The physical activity done in a marching band is in the name: marching. Marching is essentially walking in a set pace, direction, and rhythm. Holding a heavy instrument while doing this is not physically exerting in the context of sports. Therefore, I cannot find myself calling people who walk in such a fashion "athletes". All they are doing is walking in tempo. While you may be sweating a lot, it is not an action that is highly physical. Therefore, the physical activity involved in marching band is not really enough to categorize it as a sport. To conclude, marching band is an amazing art that I have enjoyed every time I have seen it. Very skilled musicians are coming together and pushing themselves further in the realm of an art that has the capability of changing your soul. They face the difficulty of playing the instrument and marching with it at the same time. This is by no means an easy art. However, the physical elements that are involved in this amazing art do not provide it with the qualifications to become a sport.