The Lincoln Log

After school on a typical day, the roar of drums pounding from the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. parking lot can be heard from a mile away. These drummers love what they do. What’s all the racket? They are the Abraham Lincoln High School Drum Corps.

Senior Ryan Lafuente, the Drum Corps. commander, led his squad to placing second at the JROTC Fall Competition, winning over Mission, Washington, Balboa, and Galileo High School. He sacrificed his own time, sweat, and money for the team as well as the other drummers. He spent $200 on uniforms and drumsticks, and donated over a thousand dollars on the team.

“I like [the team] when they’re good. I missed them the week after competition I was so used to going to practice, and now we don’t see each others as much,” Lafuente said.

There is no specific requirement needed to be in drum corps. In order to make the team, a drummer needs to play a given drill well and have good team chemistry.

If drummers miss more than two or three practices, they are dropped from the team. When the competition crept closer and was only a week away, all of the drummers were present. A drummer cannot miss a practice on hell night – when everyone practices until about 9 p.m. with dinner and watching the other JROTC teams perform. That is how serious and committed they must be.

The team is extremely dedicated to beating their drums for the Lincoln team. They practice after school six times a week, Monday through Friday and stayed until 6 p.m. They additionally practiced on Saturdays, with practices of pure drumming lasting from four to five hours long. They practice rain or shine, through the extreme weather of the blistering cold days or those bloody hot days where their sweat was dripping off their faces like rain. The week before the competition they started to get serious. During those seven days the stress and intensity built up. It was the time when you want every beat of the drums to sound in unison in order to create a rhythmic sound that resonates through the ears of an awestruck audience.

Drum Corps., like any other sport team, has a loving family feeling. There is always someone to back you up in a time of need.

“Drum corps. is like family, as cliché as that sounds. Truthfully, I think someone will experience more bonding and friendship in drum corps. than he or she will experience anywhere else,” junior snare drummer Cathy Liu said.

There are many types different types of drums, such as the triptom, bass, snare, bells, and toms. The bass is the boom of the team; they are the emphasis of the sound. The bells are the melody of the team, without them there would be no melody. The triptoms is a three in one drum with different sounds on each. The toms are the support of the bass: they are like mid range.

“You’ve got the basses and toms keeping the beat and the snares adding along. Without the bass, the beat wouldn’t be heard as clearly, but without the snares [the music] can sound boring,” senior bass drummer Alexander Tam said.

Drum corps. is a team of commitment, love, and sacrifice. These people love what they do and every moment of it. Their dedication and hard work is evident from their second place win at the Fall Competition.