Music is essential to the aura of school pride at every football game and pep assembly. That pride is the product of hours of practice from none other than the school marching band.

For many students, marching band is an opportunity to make friends, get involved, and sharpen  their musical abilities. For junior Evan LaBate  marching band took a whole new meaning as he participated in The Academy drum corps over the summer.

The Academy is a prestigious Arizona based marching band organization focused on promoting musicianship. According to The Academy website, the organization believes in “building great people through great performances.”

LaBate commented that drum corps “is basically marching band to the extreme.”

Perry band director Brandon Kiesgan commented that “[Drum and Bugle Corp] is an experience that is not for the faint of heart. They wake up from the gym floor, eat, rehearse, eat, rehearse, eat, rehearse, shower, sleep, repeat for 12 hours a day for 3 months straight.  The high quality product is truly reflective of the amount of time that goes into show preparation.”

 LaBate’s acceptance into The Academy is especially impressive because he was accepted as a sophomore, an underclassmen among a majority of upperclassmen, and he was accepted after recently switching from the saxophone to the French horn.

“Freshman year, I started out playing saxophone for a year, and then we lost two of our strongest horn players [after graduation]. I was like ‘I’ll just switch and help out the horn line. It wasn’t that hard…. actually it was really hard.”

LaBate continued that “it was the best summer of my life. Throughout the entire season, you just have the mentality of, ‘I’ve just got to push through.There is only three weeks left.’ And halfway through that, you are just like ‘I want to go home.’ But at the end, when I was in Lucas Oil Stadium after the final horns down, it’s like ‘wow, I’m never going to do this again until next year.’”

LaBate was not alone marching with The Academy. Senior Cari Earnhardt recently completed her fourth year marching with in a drum corps.

Earnhardt commented, “during the summer, they push you really hard. I thought it was going to be fun all the time, and it is fun and it is really rewarding, but they push you past your limits. [This experience] not only made me a better musician, but a better person.”

Any opportunity for a musician to grow to a great opportunity. True devotion to music, such as with LaBate and Earnhardt, is what pays off in the end.