If you’ve been to a Bakersfield College home football game, there’s no doubt you’ve heard them. If you’ve been on campus Thursday afternoons, you’ve probably heard them as well.
Heard what you say?
The fantastic sound of BC’s very own drumline.
The drumline is entirely composed of students attending the college, who besides having to worry about routines and finding the time to practice, have to also worry about things such as homework and finals.
Early in the semester, the squad has performances were they’ve only had three hours of practice as a group.
But come game day and once halftime hits, all of that other stuff goes out the window.
As the drumline walks onto the field and into position, the anticipation in the crowd begins to mount until the performance begins.
“It gives you more energy, to perform better, you can feel people watching you. You can feel their presence and they go crazy, so its fun especially at the football games. The crowd loves us and we love them,” said Jesus Navarro, member of the drumline.
With every cheer and every shout the drumline receives it sounds as if the BC football team had just scored a touchdown, which hasn’t happened this season as much as we all had hoped.
Many of the drumline members agree that the enthusiasm that they show is an exact reaction to the response that they receive from the crowd.
“Its one of my favorite feelings, I’m able to see people enjoy our performance and it helps get the adrenalin going,” said Devon Kinnard a member of the drumline.
The director of the drumline is Tim Heasley and he’s been running the program since he arrived at BC in the spring of 2008. At that time the program was just in its infancy stage and he hasn’t necessarily changed the drumline as much as he’s helped expanded the program.
With interest growing in the drumline as the years have gone by, Heasley has been able to add more instruments through fundraisers allowing the program to continue to grow.
Heasley is also one of the first to acknowledge how much work goes into getting the drumline members ready to perform.
“You have to look like you’ve been doing this for years cause that’s what the people expect to see,” says Heasley “What the audience doesn’t see is the concentration level required to play the right notes, have the right choreography and perform the best you can.”
Heasley’s love for the drumline isn’t something that is lost on the members of the group.
“ I want to do good for my director because he’s done so much for us,” says Hayley Verrell, a member of the drumline since last fall. “This all reflects back on the program in the end.”
Despite a high turnover rate and a squad full of fresh faces, BC’s drumline isn’t skipping a beat.
The BC drumline doesn’t solely perform at school functions and even though members cycle in and out as the semesters go on, calls to book the drumline keep coming in.
“We get more calls then we can keep up with, we really have to say no more times than we want to. If students didn’t have to go to school full time or work, I’m convinced that it would be a business,” says Heasley.
With some many fresh faces, Heasley has certain members that he says, “have been there and done that” to help guide some of the younger members as they join the drumline. Current members such as Navarro, Kinnard and Verrell are just some of the current members that he looks to offer guidance to some of the newer members.
Whether their performing at the alumni BBQ, at a community event or at halftime for the BC football team, the drumline has earned quite a following with people eager and ready to watch them perform.
Heasley couldn’t have said it better, “There’s something about music, especially performing music that is really energetic and gets the people going”.