Author Spotlight
Anna Mitchell
“Who’s the baddest? We’re the baddest!”
As the drum majors and seniors Bre Ledbetter, Abby Goodmon and junior Sam Fritz prepared to perform, they yelled out to one another their pre-competition chants before their first performance as leaders for their season — Lancer Day.
“We, [as drum majors] just wanted to start fresh and kind of get rid of anything that wasn’t working in previous seasons,” Ledbetter said. “We wanted to get to like finals and whatnot, but it wasn’t our main goal. We wanted to have a fun season and start new traditions that worked and help progress for upcoming years to be able to do what they need to get done.”
With it being both Ledbetter’s and Fritz’s first season as a drum major — the highest position within band, right below the band director — and Goodmon having little experience in a COVID-19 season last year, they weren’t expecting much success out of this season.
They thought at best they’d get better playing their instruments. They thought at best they would get to perform unmasked at all home football games. They thought at best they would get to have a couple fun competitions. When the band first met at their yearly week-long summer camp, the three leaders assumed this season was solely going to be based on enjoyment rather than competitive success.
However as members showed up to rehearsals extra early and the drum majors had everyone’s attention from start to finish of practices, they saw they didn’t just want a fun season, the marching band wanted to succeed.
So, they took a new approach as leaders. They pushed their band members harder with encouraging harsh memorization while also working to bring them closer and work out little mistakes within the band. Now, this closeness has led to more successful competitions than the past within the band that the trio never expected.
“At first we were like, ‘Okay, let’s just have fun this year,’” Goodmon said. “And then everyone came back wanting to work hard and so we were like, ‘Okay, let’s take that and run with it.’”
In the past, the band has struggled to remain consistent in competition wins alongside keeping a close bond with each other. However, this year, the band kept up with what they call “zero hour practices” where they rehearse at 7 a.m before school. They memorized each movement and note — all as a result of the new leaders who constantly remind them to try their best. Four-year band member Noah Gould has observed leadership over the years and its impact on seasons.
“I think with some switch of leadership this year and some really good drum majors, a new assistant band director and new percussion captain, [the leadership] brought us something really, really good,” Gould says. “[This season] brought some great opportunities and I really hope the underclassmen continue that.”
But after seven weeks of early morning practices and Thursday night rehearsals, their first competition at the University of Central Missouri on October 16 was a slight disappointment. The marching band didn’t make finals, despite being confident that their performance was top notch and they’d hit every movement with every note.
“We were definitely content in how we played, but we wanted to achieve what our band was capable of so that was definitely a push in the next couple of weeks,” Fritz said.
But the band knew that with work it was possible. The drum majors had confidence in their peers and skill to go into their upcoming and last competition Kansas Band Association, KBA, at KU.
With KBA on October 30, they had a few weeks to prepare themselves and prove that even after a year full of cutting holes in masks to play instruments and few chances to play their pregame ritual, they could make finals in state, and the drum majors made sure of it with constant positive encouragement.
“I definitely encourage section leaders to be on top of their sections, like get their music memorized, make sure they have older material, that way we’re not taking time out of rehearsal,” Ledbetter said. “I also was just making sure everyone stayed overall positive and [making] sure it’s a welcoming environment for sure.”
After the 11-minute performance, the drum majors all concluded it wasn’t their best yet. However, hours later after watching bands from all over Kansas perform, the list of possible final placements was posted. The band was in shock with excitement as “Shawnee Mission East” was down as 12th place, the last team to make it into finals.
As their marching band season came to end, they were proud and confident in a successful season. Some members had gotten to travel to Rome in 2019 and current members were invited to London next year, but didn’t think they had any foreign opportunities this season.
However, two days before Thanksgiving Break, band director Alex Toepfer, who students call “dad” due to seeing him more than their own parents, presented an invitation to London’s virtual New Year’s Parade for this year, on top of their invitation to come in person next year.
Having not performed this routine since two months prior and no time to prepare, the announcement came as a shock. The drum majors knew the musicians would be rusty in the 45º and windy weather, but that didn’t stop them from hyping their band up and bringing out positivity that early morning.
The morning returning from Thanksgiving Break, students were back out on the turf at 7 a.m. fully dressed head to toe in black and blue uniforms to be filmed by London filmmakers.
The edit of 23 marching bands around the country will be broadcasted across the world, one of which will be our band dressed in black and columbia blue. Despite knowing this performance may not have been their best due to their lack of preparation and early morning grogginess, the drum majors remain happy to end with this as the season’s last hoorah, closing their performance with the usual “East!” shout and looking into the audience as a happy family.
“It’s just a huge family,” Goodmon said. “That’s my favorite part about our program. We are all there for each other and we don’t care about backgrounds. We’re all just a big family and come together to create music everyday.”
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