June 25, 2004

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Publication Date: Friday, June 25, 2004

Rat-a-tat-tat echoes through town

Passersby near Amador Valley High School last week heard the strong, clear sounds from horns and sharp rat-a-tat-tats of percussion instruments, but few knew what the music was all about.

It was the Santa Clara Vanguard, a 135-member strong drum and bugle corps, preparing for an eight-week tour throughout the United States.

"It's a wonderful program that flies under the radar," said horn instructor Dennis Aquilina, who is also Hart Middle School's band teacher. The Vanguard is part of a larger organization, the Drum Corps International, a nonprofit drum and bugle corps.

Every summer, after months of weekend practices, the corps, made up of students ages 16-21, tour throughout the States, sleeping in high school gymnasiums and performing almost nightly. The performances culminate in a drum and bugle corps competition, being held this year in Denver.

For the first time, Santa Clara's corps, the Vanguard, called Amador its home-away-from-home for nine days as members refined their performance before taking to the road in six buses and two tractor trailers.

"We go to small towns and sleep in high school gyms across the country," Aquilina said. During tours, the members lose track of time and day. On performance nights, sometimes their days will end at midnight, he explained.

Overnight, the corps is bussed to the next stop, where the band will settle into another gym. "They sleep, wake up and get started again," he said.

"You're dedicated to it, like an athlete is dedicated to that activity," said Brenda Drottz, a former drum and bugle corps member.

In 1981, Drottz was in the color guard for the Santa Clara Vanguard as well as marching with a drum and bugle corps in Casper, Wyo., and a smaller one in San Jose, marching a total of seven years.

"We toured all summer," she said. "We were gluttons for punishment ... standing out there from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. and going back the next day."

The schedule is rigorous. A typical day on tour for Drottz started at 8 a.m. for breakfast at "Miss Amana," the nickname for the Vanguard's kitchen trailer.

"We would hit the field and would rehearse, learning, perfecting a drill," she said, adding that sometimes they would work on the same eight counts over and over again. An hour-long lunch broke the day midway and afterward, they rehearsed again.

On performance night, Drottz said they would eat a light meal and shower in the school's locker rooms, before getting dressed in their uniforms and being bussed to the stadium, or wherever they were performing that night.

Along with several other drum corps, she said, they would wait for their turn. After the performance, they were bussed back to the school, ate another meal, and then it was lights out.

"We slept in sleeping bags on the gym floor," Drottz said. "One suitcase had to fit all the clothes for an entire summer."

Every once in awhile, they would get a "free day, laundry day." This year, as a volunteer, Drottz scouted around Pleasanton for Laundromats for the visiting Vanguard. She found three in the area, which the young corps members were bussed to before heading out on tour Monday.

"You packed knowing how long you were going to be on the road," Drottz said. "We were pretty good about knowing what we needed."

There is not room for excess on the 76-plus-day road tour. The Vanguard's schedule has slated a performance in San Diego one day and in Phoenix the next. Six performances later, hopping them from state to state, they are expected in Pascagoula, Miss.

The tour also has stops throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as in Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio and New York, among other states, before the Denver competition in August.

The schedule is demanding, requiring absolute discipline from the members. "They have to be above reproach," Aquilina said. The corps demands "outstanding character."

The drum corps have been in existence for decades, Aquilina said, explaining that they began as Veterans of Foreign War corps giving patriotic performances in parades.

Santa Clara's corps was formed in 1967, and this year, it had some 300 people from throughout the world, including Japan, audition for a position, Aquilina said. First-cut auditions were held in November and second-cut in December, he said.

For each audition, potential members had to come to Santa Clara at their own expense for a weekend. If selected, they had to return once a month for rehearsals before the launch of the performance tour, which began with a four-day rehearsal camp May 28 and will end Aug. 15.

Members also pay a $1,100 fee to help offset the two-and-a-half-month road tour expense, which includes food, transportation and uniforms.

"It looks like hard work, but the rewards pay off," Drottz said. Not only does she have friends throughout the country, many former marching members, she also met her husband, Mike, while marching in the Vanguard.

When she and her husband attend a corps performance, they often see marching friends. "It's like a family reunion year after year."

Calling it a lifetime experience, Drottz said, "You do it during a time in your youth where it's your social activity and establish friendships. You live on a gym floor, there's a bond there."

"I wish more people knew about it," she said. "They're missing an opportunity to see something that's a lifelong memory."

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