Unfortunately, it seems that students at WJ have an issue giving credit where credit is due. One of the newest groups or teams to fly under the radar with little recognition for their success is drumline.

Drumline, featuring junior captain Sam Um, seniors Byung Kang, Todd Glazer, Stephanie Carbajal, Andrew Himonas and Paul Kim, junior Daniel Mears, sophomore Austin Weed and freshman Ty Glover, impressed many with memorable performances at last year’s football games and pep rallies.  Despite having many performances under their belt and building chemistry with each other as well as their sponsor, math teacher Mike Egan, drumline is still a relatively unknown group at WJ.

“Because we are such a small group and a new group, many students at WJ don’t know we exist nor who the members are,” said Kang.

The two main issues drumline is dealing with are a lack of exposure and the overall expense of the equipment they need. Three of the founders of drumline came up with the idea a few years ago, but didn’t go forward with it mainly because of the financial issues they knew they would have to figure out.

“I really wanted to make a drumline since freshman year and even made a Facebook group, but I thought it was impossible to make one since we needed a lot of money and I was a freshman,” said Kang.

The members of the drumline weren’t overestimating when they foresaw the cost of their equipment being extremely high.

“Our first set of drums, including three bases, two snares, one quad and all the instrument stands plus cases was nearly $10,000,” said Um.

The issue of the cost of the equipment is compounded with an increasing amount of people wanting to join drumline, even though there are a limited number of drums are available.  According to the members, timing is the main factor of this problem as students are interested in joining drumline before the music department can raise money to buy more equipment for new members.

“We only have six drums and there are more people who want to join, but they can’t because there aren’t enough drums for everyone,” said Um.

After drumline’s recent fundraiser with Noodles & Company, the music department will soon be able to buy more drums for new members.  Despite these problems, drumline is still practicing together two times a week and individually to prepare for future playing opportunities in and outside of school.

They are informed through Egan about school activities where they can possibly perform. Although drumline will not be performing at any of the football team’s remaining games because they are not at WJ, drumline is looking forward to the winter sports season and upcoming winter assemblies.

Drumline hopes to reach a point in which they regularly perform at all home football games, similar to the poms squad and cheerleaders. They plan to find even more methods to raise money for the growing group and become a permanent staple in many of WJ’s extracurricular activities and home sports games.