Just after halftime during the basketball game, two boys remove their attention from the court, focusing instead on the white, sparkly instrument a few rows down. Related: State tournament coverage; view the latest scores

“Is that an accordion?” asks Landon Rhodes, a seventh-grader at Exeter-Milligan.

“No, it’s a jukebox,” replies Blake Mark, an Exeter-Milligan sixth-grader seated next to him.

It is, in fact, an accordion.

And it made its pep band debut  Thursday, just before the game between the Exeter-Milligan Timberwolves and the Franklin Flyers at the Class C-2 girls state basketball tournament.

Shandra Korbelik had played her button accordion in the Exeter-Milligan pep band just once before the state tournament game — one song, which she played behind the bleachers.

“I got shy,” she explained.

But as she gets better, she’s also getting braver.

So Thursday, she played, with the rest of the band, sitting in the woodwinds section.

The 16-year-old junior has thus far converted music for pep band standards like “Eye of the Tiger,” “We’re Not Going to Take It” and half of the theme of “Hawaii 5-0” for the accordion.

She can play “The Star Spangled Banner” pretty well, she said, but wants it to be perfect before she plays it with the band.

She’s still working on “Smoke on the Water.”

Playing the instrument, she’s following in the footsteps of her uncle, her grandfather and, she’s pretty sure, her great-grandfather.

“It’s a long string, further than I know,” she said.

And it kind of fits her personality, too, she said.

“It’s fun to be original, you know, and not one of everyone else.”

Shandra started taking lessons last spring, after years of watching her uncle perform.

Progress was, at first, slow. She was unable to find much accordion sheet music, as accordionists generally play by ear. And her first instrument was out-of-tune.

Then, in the summer, she found a new one, white, with rhinestone-studded birds and flowers that had belonged to an accordionist named Milo Kubicek. 

“It was like, Oh my gosh, I’ve got heaven in my arms,” Shandra said.

The Exeter-Milligan band instructor helped her figure out the octaves.

And it began to click.

Shandra also plays at accordion jamborees, in which accordionists from far and wide play old polkas and waltzes together, all at once.

Those are fun, for a variety of reasons. Her uncle, Randy Korbelik, is usually there, for one.

“(My parents) don’t give me a curfew when I go to accordion jamborees,” she said.

Shandra’s getting ready to begin another round of lessons. She wanted to play an accordion number at a district music contest, but that, she said, would have required a special judge who was trained in the accordion.

So, instead, she’s going to play a flute duet.

On Thursday, she played just a few songs, before the game. She didn’t play with the band at halftime because she’s also on the dance team, the Exeter-Milligan Sparks, and had to dance instead.

But she’ll get another chance to play today — the Timberwolves won on Thursday, 56-41.

And Shandra and her accordion will be back, said Stacy Bean, the Exeter-Milligan band instructor.

“She’ll bring it all week,” Bean said.

Maybe.

It’s possible, Shandra said, that she’ll get shy.

Although she’s never known of another pep band accordionist, Bean hopes Shandra decides to play.

“It’s just great to see that tradition continue.”

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.