The people on the podium: Support structure from alums

This week, we'll be focusing some editorial firepower on anecdotes and stories related to guards. Think back to those formative, funny, inspiring or memorable drum major and send them in! They can be as long or as short as you would like. Attach a picture of yourself or the situation you're writing about if you can. And by all means, pass this on to your friends! We'll edit these stories for clarity, grammar and appropriateness. If you have a drum major-related anecdote or story, send it to content@dci.org. By Chris Weber One of the most useful things I had when I was named drum major in 2003 was an immense support structure from Cavalier alumni. The previous year's drum majors, Brandon Barrometti and Ryan Ling, were especially helpful in turning over the job to assistant drum major Chris Meisner and myself. We stayed in contact with Brandon and Ryan throughout the winter and into the summer to help provide a smooth leadership transition from the 2002 to 2003 corps. With the assistance of former Cavalier drum majors I was able to piece together just about anything I needed to know as drum major aside from one thing. Corps director Jeff Fiedler has become legendary for supposedly doing the splits on the podium at shows during his tenure as drum major from 1979-80. While he claims that the effort was only a result of a slip off the podium, all drum majors insist that he teach them the famed move. Despite constant prodding to learn the move, I was unable to get the answers I wanted from him. Maybe it's because some moves are best left to 1970s drum corps, or maybe the tight uniform pants would make the splits an impossible task for today's drum majors, and Fiedler just refuses to give up the secret. Aside from that, Meisner and I had the opportunity last summer to talk with a lot of alumni about corps history and tradition that we in turn did our best to pass onto the corps. At last year's Frankfort, Ill. show a large number of former drum majors were in attendance, and we decided to have a picture taken together after the show to document the occasion.